A Case for Inherent Morality

[Angrboda]

In one of your posts you said that you read some psyc studies claiming infants/toddlers demonstrated the ability to recognize good and bad actions. I remember something about that too. It is suggestive that the infants had an inborn sense of right and wrong.

It could also suggest that by the age of 6 months (I think that was the earliest age) they could have acquired the ability to differentiate, and desire, nurturing behavior over non nurturing learned their parents. I see that others have addressed this. And then it could be a choice to select the least threatening behavior for self preservation and pain avoidance. The problem is that the babies can't communicate why they made their decision.

Are you sure adult behavior cannot be similarly explained? We feel altruism is good and virtuous, yet we know its roots go down to self-interest in kinship selection.