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Human ethics transcend nature I don't think that's true. Of course you can come up with ethical systems which transcend nature but the ones that actually get a
by blfr 9y ago
Human ethics transcend nature
I don't think that's true. Of course you can come up with ethical systems which transcend nature but the ones that actually get adopted are simply sets and heuristics which make the group benefit the most from "just how it is."
Considering that moral attitudes are partially heritable, on a long enough time-scale, ethics that are truly separate from nature are bound to disappear or be relegated to marginal groups of people.
- comicjk 9y agoI suspect that human ethics transfer much faster memetically than genetically. In which case, their heritability is relatively unimportant. What matters is believability. It seems as though there will be a natural ebb and flow between ethics which propagate by defeating others, and ethics which propagate by convincing them. The equilibrium ethics will be somewhere in between, as I believe we observe for most real societies.
- blfr 9y agohuman ethics transfer much faster memetically than genetically Almost certainly. But they transfer much more permanently genetically.
- carsongross 9y ago> get adopted are simply sets and heuristics which make the group benefit the most from "just how it is." "Group" is a slippery thing, though. There is always a tendency for individuals and sub-groups to cheat on whatever wider group ethics might exist. It's a more complex phenomena than most people give it credit for.