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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)
- We have urge to protect an unknown child
- 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
- But there is extraordinary similarity among all cultures, indictative as
a common starting point
- 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)
- Example of what concretely do we have to learn to be altruistic?
- 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?)
- No. Actual human norms for moral discourse/justification are needed to
justify actions morally
- 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.
- Used to justify thinking of the world in causal terms (Kant says we
simply are not capable of doing otherwise)
- It’s not contingent if it is who we are / we have a certain nature
- “It’s just the type of people we are”
- 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.
- Instinctive behavior can be inherited
- 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.