Morality

Question 1

Haidt moral systems definition

Answer 1

“interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or REGULATE SELFISHNESS and make social life possible”

Question 2

human brains

Answer 2

roughly three times larger than those of their nearest primate relatives

Question 3

sanctity evolutionary basis

Answer 3

pathogens are among the principle existential threats to human life

cultures that evolve a sense of purity and sanctity would have enhanced evolutionary fitness

Question 4

factors contributing to dif moral behaviours

Answer 4

religion
social ecology
kinship
economic markets

Question 5

comparison to language

Answer 5

• built into multiple regions of the brain and body
• better described as emergent than as learned
• requires input and shaping from culture
• results in widely diverse forms

Question 6

two types of moral system

Answer 6

two types of moral system, or, in other words, two different ways to suppress selfishness:

• individualizing (which protect individuals directly, e.g. a legal system)
• e.g. care and fairness
• binding (bind groups and institutions together with rules to suppress their selfish nature)
• e.g. ingroup, authority, purity

(Haidt)

Question 7

care/harm

Answer 7

caring, nurturing, and protecting vulnerable individuals from harm

(evolution link to monkeys who also see kindness, kinship, empathic concern)

Question 8

Fairness/cheating

Answer 8

concern with fairness, reciprocity, and justice,

link: evolution of reciprocal altruism/altrusitic punishment

Question 9

Loyalty/betrayal

Answer 9

Virtues of loyalty, patriotism, and self-sacrifice for the group, combined with an extreme vigilance for traitors,

(link: evolution and genetic basis of ingroup loyalty)

Question 10

Authority/ subversion

Answer 10

Virtues of obedience and respect for authority, values leadership and protection

(link: evolution of hierarchy in primates etc)

Question 11

Purity/ degradation

Answer 11

virtues of purity and sanctity that play such a large role in religious laws

(link: writing about the evolution of disgust and contamination sensitivity)

Question 12

MST five foundations dialectics

Answer 12

care/harm
fairness/cheating
loyalty/betrayal
authority/subversion
sanctity/degradation
(+liberty/oppression)