A collective group of people will be more successful than an individual alone, in terms of survival of the fittest. In order to be a productive, successful, efficient, and advanced society, we must cooperate efficiently; it is essential to the survival of the society. You could say that the individual's greatest interest is his own achievement due to our inherent goal of being the dominant man, but in order to succeed to one's fullest potential, the individual must be a part of the society. Everyone in society would face conflict if they did not take into consideration the fact that everyone's main goal is their own success. Therefore, "morality" arises; morality being a set of social rules to abide by in order to maximize the success of the society, which ultimately maximizes the success of the individual. And being social animals, we have empathy, which allows us to naturally understand this phenomenon and act accordingly. Because we have this sense of empathy, and because the need for society to abide by these rules in order to be successful, morality is subconsciously placed on such high regard. If everyone were to commit immoral acts, the society would collapse. Therefore, even though it may not be apparent on the small-scale, immoral acts are detrimental to the society, and ultimately to the individual. Perhaps organized religion developed as a tool to reinforce the necessity of morality; because the individual's afterlife is at risk of eternal punishment, the individual will make damn sure that they abide by the rules. But because the individual's greatest interest is their own success, the authority figures of religion (or any form of authority) could use this to their advantage to satisfy their desire for power and control of the masses.
Sounds like the principle of Utility! Greatest good for the greatest number of people. look up John Stuart Mill's On Liberty It's about utilitarianism. Sounds like you would enjoy it
Other great readings on the subject: The Objectivist Ethics The Virtue of Selfishness (meaning rational self-interest) Atlas Shrugged
Thanks guys. I'll check into it. I guess I was looking for a reason to be moral without resorting to the "just because it's the right thing to do" answer. I mean, I know being moral is the right thing to do, but I wanted to find an answer that goes deeper than that. Ultimately I figured our greatest interest is our own success, so that's where I was coming from.
I went down that very enlightening path a couple years ago. It just makes sense! Man's only tool of survival is his capacity to reason, therefore any system of morals or ethics a man chooses to follow must be RATIONAL, otherwise he is working to his own destruction. Not stealing out of fear that God will smite you is irrational, but not stealing because it would take away your freedom (jail) is acting in your own rational self-interest.
How would you measure "success" in a society? Money? Happiness? Fame? Integrity? Love? Material Possession? Friends? Family?
Yes. In a free society, where individual rights are fiercely protected by the rule of law and everyone is equal in the eyes of the law (like in a Constitutional Republic, for example), everyone would define success differently, and everyone would be free to pursue their own brand of happiness.
Well, in the primitive era, I would have defined it as everything that allows for a more efficient way of living. In the modern world we have the fundamental necessities to survive, but we're continuously making technological advancements that allow for greater efficiency, and our inherent desire for dominance is evident in people's desire to attain a higher social status. But in the most general sense I would consider success to be anything beneficial as opposed to detrimental.
hmm when one has realized his own self and his soul and spirit, most times an unusual feeling over comes him and that feeling is that he is not so different from the grass he steps on to the animals he pets. this feeling becomes overwhelming when it comes to his fellow brothers and sisters, he starts to feel that whatever is good for his neighbor is good for him, he feels a love for everything, an appreciation that he gets to experience "life", this crazy manifestation he lives in with all these other things. we are all progressing towards this consciousness through evolution, there is no regressing back, even if you take but a step towards it in this life, it is still a step. the golden age many speak of is the awakening of this consciousness throughout the majority of the world, there will be a tipping point where people will not hold back any longer and a great movement will commence, a movement towards better times where everyone is so much more understanding and less dividing, it kills me the division between us all. instead of each one of us trying to get somewhere individually and do things for ourselves why dont we group up and fortify each other while we travel our paths>? because mankind is literally just too stupid at this point in time its like telling a monkey that the path is straight ahead, look you can see the other side, you see it? and he decides to swing in the trees towards it and ends up getting lost and eventually falls until he must retrace where he started and try try again until he realizes he must walk life is but a lesson meant to be learned, learn it well
Size, the bigger the better. We're like an angry bacteria that can't help itself from spreading across the Earth. And it's always a "tragedy" when the planet, and it's space neighbors, make attempts at disinfecting itself. Actually, if people really wanted to co-exist with their environment, they could at least take better care of their host organism. All those microscopic creepy crawly's living on your skin, and inside of you for that matter, seem to manage it just fine. Why the fuck do we have to be a cancer?
I dont even think its a human thing as much as morality is just a part of nature. Its not just a big free-for-all for everything outside of humans. There's groups of animals cooperating everywhere, they need to in order to survive.
Well yes I agree, I was just referring to humans; we give our method of cooperation a name, 'morality.'
Not just "Perhaps," it is almost a certainty. Religious "God" figures reinforce basic morals that most of us can experience without a religion. The Ten Commandments, how basic are those moral rights? God did not create those morals, those are ones that many people would follow even without a "God" saying they are right or wrong. If God said its right to kill, most individuals would be like no that is wrong. It is when God doesn't punish people who who kill and steal, that a God is needed to reinforce them
It's interesting to consider our species as a whole, and to consider our goal as being the fittest for survival. Morality would then develop as a tool to ensure that we achieve our goal. And characteristics such as altruism would develop as a way to ensure that people would not become selfish. Religion is possibly the most effective tool for reinforcing the neccesity of morality since the individual's afterlife is at stake.