I'm still not sure I understand.
Obviously something must be innate. Not everything can be learned. At the very least, the capacity for learning must be innate, otherwise we'd never get off the ground. this is just logic.
Even ethics, which seems so high-minded and contrived at first blush, has an innate foundation in the adaptive benefits of cooperation that are, in turn, restricted by, shall we say, taking that apparent benevolence too far, which is likewise adaptive behavior. Here we find some basis for absolutes: a biological foundation with a muddling thoughtful brain attached, trying its best to cope with much more complicated issues requiring, despite the sophistication, that ancient and perhaps hard-wired drive towards cooperation. There is some Darwinian sense in arguing that it does matter what we choose to value, given that survival is at stake. But the Darwinian model no longer applies. Our survival rests not upon accident but intent. |
