Quote:
Originally Posted by jwb
People thought the Nazis were good too. Why is it that if a different culture or whatever thinks it's good that's not evil but if it's just one individual psycho who thinks it's good then it is?
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I generally think that how morally good or bad an action is depends on the consequences in terms of joy / suffering rather than what one believes. If you did something and everyone but you think you're evil, I guess the chances are higher that you did something that caused significantly more suffering than joy. It's an indication perhaps, though no guarantee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elphenor
I'd be careful when viewing humans through a lens of evolutionary biology
we have social factors that far exceed even our nearest relatives
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I think I have an okay handle on it, having studied biology.
The most basic human drives and behaviours are generally explainable by concepts we know like kin selection and reciprocality. If you wanna get into weird altruism, ants is where it's at (like it says in your sig).