(June 20, 2021 at 8:02 pm)JohnJubinsky Wrote: I don't know it to be true. It is a theory to me that I believe to be true. The argument that I have to demonstrate my position is presented in my original post.
That's fair. As a theory (or hypothesis), it's something that we can work to support, or argue against, etc. We can look for empirical or logical evidence about it. So far I'm not seeing any.
I think this view would fall in the category of "evolutionary psychology." It's a popular field because it seeks to explain behavior and social attitudes as evolutionary adaptations. There are certainly limitations to the field, and some serious criticisms, but it's probably worth taking a look at.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolu...sychology/
Personally I am very skeptical that we are born with any specific moral dictates, like "stealing is wrong." As I've said, I think these are filled in, often quite quickly, by the people around us. I am more open to the idea that we have certain mental structures which lend themselves to the development of specific morals -- something like Kantian categories, which exist in the mind to make sense of experience. But this latter part is also a guess on my part.