We have outlined ways in which the evolutionary process has benefited social groups which developed more complex communication and cognitive skills, like humans.
Although a number of species developed higher level communication skills--with some probably definable as language or at least proto-language--humans took to it intensively and developed it exponentially. You might say we are completely addicted to language. When with others we know, and even often with those we do not know, we will talk nearly continuously.
Not only that, but at some early stage we also began to talk to ourselves in our minds. We carry on a continual mental rehearsal of things we might say, should have said, would like to say.
And humans very quickly acquired a huge appetite for gossip, talking with each other about each other. We talked to ourselves in our thoughts and came up with an unending stream of opinions on everything we thought about. We turned language into alphabets and began writing down our talk to preserve it and disseminate it beyond the limits of our immediate community.
As we saw in previous posts, socially organized populations of many species developed unspoken and undefined social agreements about what types of actions the group will and will not tolerate. However, in humans these proto-moral unarticulated agreements were subjected to the scrutiny of community discussion – extensive, incessant community discussions.
As communities, societies, populations, we experienced the consequences of actions from both sides: as, for instance, joy on the side of the ones stealing and anger, frustration, and hurt on the side of the ones being stolen from. And we talked about it, and thought about it, and gossiped about it.
As communities we came to clearly defined and expressed ideas about what we considered "good" and "bad" actions. Often we embedded these communal standards in our religions; we always included them in our socio-political structures.
But over thousands of years we have evolved our sense of morality far beyond that. At this point in our ongoing transformation of our sense of our own humanity, we now have many long-standing values attached to many different thoughts, attitudes, motivations. In other words morality is not just about actions. We see actions emerging from mental ideas and emotions and have labeled these as "good" and "bad" as well because of the actions to which they lead.
In point of fact, we know what is right and wrong because we have been thinking about it and talking about it for thousands upon thousands of years. It is part of our social evolutionary process of becoming human.
Yes, there are disagreements between different communities about what particular items go on our respective “good” and “bad” lists. And as the innumerable varieties of communities mix and mingle on a new global scale, a lot of disputes, arguments, and even anger are bound to result. But it also is expanding that conversation about what we want our humanity to become. We’re going to sort it out like we always have by talking, thinking, arguing, adjusting, expanding, abstracting – and probably beating the hell out of each other on occasion.
So is there any real universal basis for morality, or is it all just dependent on what culture, society, religion you find yourself in? See the next blog
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