Morality

A work in progress. Please chip in if you have any contribution to make, and I will re-edit and re-post.

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People often ask, "Without an external source (typically a religious one), providing a system of ethics, how can people behave morally?"

The short answer is that most of us do anyway, whatever religion they follow, and even if they follow none.

But why is it that some behave morally, most of the time, and some do not?

At the risk of boring people to death, the answer lies in evolution.

There was an animated film that I watched on a transatlantic flight, which, to my regret, I cannot find reference to. Maybe a commentator can help me. Anyway, it depicted a small nuclear family, living in a cave and threatened by predators and all manner of scary things. They had no fire (just like the last Tasmanians who were wiped out by Europeans). Along comes a young man from another tribe. With fire, and the knowledge of how to create and maintain fire. The patriarch tried to expel him, but the young interloper ended up saving the family - by using fire.

Humans are a social species. We depend on one another. We depend on cooperation. Sharing technology. What motivates us to do so?

Evolution is not deterministic. We are not robots, programmed directly by our DNA. Instead, we inherit via our DNA, predispositions to behave in certain ways. Those predispositions are

1) To seek warmth, food and protection.
2) To find and mate with mates
3) To nurture and protect our offspring.
4) But occasionally, and in certain circumstances, it suits us to cheat and exploit  1-3. Specialists in this evolutionary tactic are called "sociopaths".

References:

https://www.amazon.com/Bonobo-Atheist-Search-Humanism-Primates/dp/0393347796

https://www.amazon.com/One-World-Ethics-Globalization-Lectures/dp/0300103050/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528191543&sr=1-1&keywords=one+world+singer

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=the%20rational%20manifesto%20for%20one%20world