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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: combjelly who wrote (213308)12/13/2004 4:13:09 PM
From: neolib  Read Replies (1) of 1576398
 
This is not to say that I buy into sociobiology 100%. But it is interesting. And even if true, things like this should never be used as a foundation of ethics or morality. Those are different issues.

The problem with sociobiology, and behavioral biology in general is that plausible explanations are not necessarily causative. My wife is always feeding me tales from the insect world which is very strange and bizarre indeed. Some family (flies I think) has one species where the male catches some prey and presents it to the female. If she likes it, the male gets to mate. In another species in the family, the male wraps the prey in spit or silk (or something worse, I can't recall) and mates with the female while she unwraps it. In yet another species in the family, the male wraps nothing, gives the empty gift to the female, and mates while she unwraps it. Behaviorists say the latter is the most evolved.

I disagree about foundations for ethics or morality. There are many differences which Darwinian biology and most religions have that should impact ethics and morality. Three important ones are:

1) Religion says humans are unique, separate from all other species.

Evolution says we are kin, with common ancestors.

2) Religion says that the point of life is obtaining immutable immortality of the individual.

Evolution tells me the point of life is mutable immortality of my DNA.

3) Religion says that evil arises as the result of free choice.

Evolution tells me evil exists because a reproduction rate of integral 1 is not obtainable (sans intelligence anyway)

There are many others, and of course the "religion says" part depends on which religion you are discussing.

I think that such view points should impact ethics and morality.
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