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RE: Are Human Beings Inherently Good or Bad?

in #philosophy7 years ago (edited)

I'd take a look at the question and wonder if humans (plural) are good. Most think of them selves singularly and then try to apply ones own ethics to us all.

That doesn't work...

For starters there is the classic; take the average IQ of the group divided by the size of the group and you get the IQ of the group. Of course we know the higher the IQ the greater good right? That can be argued too. A higher IQ under stress just has an easier time of taking resources from the less capable.

A single human is not good, we are social primates. Loneliness and isolation is a modern day epidemic. Let us define good as a lack of suffering and a good decision is one that will cause less suffering in the future.

So we are back to the question; are humans good? Do we (more than one of us) try and reduce suffering for ourselves and others. Reducing the suffering of others implies altruism and a sacrifice. It's intuitive, but rarely expressed that our altruistic effort is directly related to our degree of affiliation to the other. Its also proven by scientific study, but these studies get buried. A few obvious examples is if two people were about to fall off a cliff and I could only grab one, one of them being my son I would grab my son. The same amount of suffering occurred in the world, the one I could not reach has a father..., just happens the suffering is not mine. I had a choice. Other interesting affiliation studies involve foster children and neglect, a biological child is treated better. Primate troops affiliation (Sapolsky) and studies of reaction times with different color skin types.

So we established good choices are based on affiliation. Teamwork, tribes, rock bands, all are better than one individual. You sacrifice being part of any group. Your individuality and your taxes.

Choices we constantly have to make due to lack of resources or, as is usual, desiring a better resource. We, WE, desire a better resource. Our team will win, make america great again, my God is your God too.

Were that our cultures were homogeneous. That we were all the same. That there were fewer of us. Humans as a species has replaced biological evolution with cultural evolution. Technology is giving the few, superpowers. The income disparity will widen, the few will prosper and perhaps move off this planet. The remainder will die off like a species that gives birth to a thousand young in the hope that a few survive.

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