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What is altruism?

  • “pure altruism” Help to someone else at some cost to self
  • (distinct from reciprocal altruism: done with expectation of return)

Was the tendency to behave altrusitically evolved?

  • Other animals act in benefit for kin
    • E.g. bird lures predator away from nest to protect her offspring
    • We have genetic disposition to protect our genes (even if not done on conscious level)
  • Human altruism is also an effect that is amplified for kin
    • We have urge to protect an unknown child
      • Perhaps we are just pattern matching (consciously or unconsciously) off of our altruism for offspring.
    • You see a burning building and a person inside it
      • It’s your daughter - you rush in without thinking (and societally judged as moral behavior)
      • It’s your neighbor - you call the fire department (societally judged as moral behavior)
      • This is very distinct from Kantian moral behavior which would judge the scenarios as roughly equal.
        • (this is not a good model of how we actually behave)
    • Evidence that this behavior can be explained via evolution
      • Humans are evolved animals and thus behavior can often be successfully explained via evolutionary biology (human moral behavior no different in this regard)
  • However, altruistic behavior seems to be taught. Would this mean it’s not evolutionary?
    • There’s a learning component (like language, but we would never use the fact that it’s learned to argue that the capacity / faculty for it isn’t innate)
    • After all, different cultures have different moral systems
      • But there is extraordinary similarity among all cultures, indictative as a common starting point
        • E.g. Act to help your own kin
        • Similar to facial expressions corresponding to certain motions being similar across different cultures
    • The moral “grammar” is there from evolution but we have to learn the semantics of that grammar and how to apply the rules.
      • Example of what concretely do we have to learn to be altruistic?
        • We have to learn who are our kin?
        • We have to learn what is helpful vs harmful (e.g. that the doctor sticking needles in is not harming your child)
        • We have to learn to share as children (but children learn this remarkably easily)
  • Can human ethical behavior be justified by the fact it was evolved?
    • No. Actual human norms for moral discourse/justification are needed to justify actions morally
      • To say “I shot the intruder because I evolved to act that way” would not be a socially acceptable justification
    • Evolutionary theory is used to explain what those norms are. (E.g. “why is it that ‘I was doing it to be altruistic’ is successful in justifying behavior to other humans?)
  • Are morals all contingent based on the influence of evolution (rather than coming from pure reason)
    • “It’s just the type of people we are”
      • Used to justify thinking of the world in causal terms (Kant says we simply are not capable of doing otherwise)
        • Evolutionary biology gives explanation (ancestors who didn’t think tigers were causally connected would get eaten)
      • Likewise for altruism as a first principle, it can be justified by this line
        • Evolutionary theory provides further explanation of why that’s the case, arguments for how it increased fitness + heritability.
    • It’s not contingent if it is who we are / we have a certain nature
  • How to respond of general criticism of evolutionary psychology as not rigorous/testible?
    • In any scientific domain there will be theories that are adequately justified or not
    • Justified empirical support for things in the domain of evolutionary psychology
      • Instinctive behavior can be inherited
        • Ducks have instictive mating dances, breed ducks and get hybrid dances (no one teaching)
      • Developmental studies
        • Sequence of things learned are constant (e.g. in language we learn simple nouns first, then add X, Y, forming complex sentences, etc.
  • As a species we do well at altruism in small groups and get worse and worse as our groups which are large
    • That’s who we are. Should we go ‘beyond’ how we evolved to be better?
    • Treating kin well and more distant things worse is a constant from who we are.
    • We severely mistreat others when we treat the other tribal group as “the other”/“not us”/inhuman.
    • We become better behaved when we use our cultural knowledge / rational faculties to see that the other tribe isn’t so different from us after all.