From: Phillip Huggan (cdnprodigy@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat May 13 2006 - 10:15:23 MDT
You aren't really descrbing Morality here. This is just a system of "legal" ethics and education being described. There was still Morality, it didn't make it into the political realm of most societies. If you take a 100,000 yr old frozen cave-infant and raise him in a 20th century environment, he/she will function fine. May have a compromised immune system though.
micah glasser <micahglasser@gmail.com> wrote: I believe that "traditional morality" is a part of memetic evolution. Groups of human beings who are in competition for resources organize their activity in a more or less efficient manner relative to their respective competitors. Naturally if an individual in one of these socio-cultural groups refuses to abide by the code of organization (morality/law/religiouspractice) then the group will find some way to enforce their will. As time progresses and cultures evolve through a sequence of cultural replication, extinction, and mutation, more and more efficient systems of human organization and activity are realized. So all artifice (including morality) is a part of memetic natural selection. As such morality must evolve along with man. Asking what is "moral" and what is ultimately "good" is the most radical of philosophical questions which may not be answerable.
I act morally because it is in my nature to do so - I am a human being living in 21st century western civilization and I find myself naturally sharing the same memetic programming as most others in this civilization. Also, because of that memetic programing and the genetic gift of rationality I am able to identify myself with the human species and act toward the rational goal of preserving my species.
In the end, however, the course of the evolution of the cosmos as been predetermined. You may be free to choose one action as better than another but you are not free to choose why you think the telos of that action is better.
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