Originally posted by Blacknad:
Thanks TFF.
Is there no link between the two? Is my ability to act with self disinterest or even self sacrificially, on a conscious level, in any way an extention of zoological altruism?
Or is it an emergent property? I only ask because elsewhere there was a debate that seemed to decide that guilt had its origins in the evolutionary process.
Blacknad.
I can't pretend that I know, but I think we tend to justify some of our instincts intellectually. Fear of snakes is one example of that.
In the case of the altruistic lizards, the lizards behave altruistically toward other lizards that are naturally marked as having an altruistic tendency. Humans don't have such markings, but I think we have a tendency to be more altruistic toward other people we view as altruistic, and less altruistic to
selfish assholes, which is a highly technical term used by social scientists.
I tend to be altruistic toward all children -- without thought. When I do think about it, it makes sense: kids helped through altruism may be more likley to behave altruistically from then on. However, I have not thought about this until very recently. Weighing the pros and cons of whether I should behave altruistically in a situation does not generally occur -- except in the case of a proven
selfish asshole. In those cases, I might consciously stop myself from lending an SA a hand, unless it were a matter of life and death.
