(August 23, 2021 at 11:11 pm)Ahriman Wrote: How can using empathy and reason result in forming a sense of morality?
Simple: If you're capable of imagining yourself in the place of someone else, and imagining what they're feeling, you can identify with them and avoid doing things that hurt them. This is where things like the Golden Rule actually came from.
The reason that we (and many other animals) evolved empathy is simple: There's strength in numbers, and we prefer to associate with those who help us rather than hurt us. Over millions of years, less empathetic animals have a harder time surviving because they have to go it alone.