Just a suggestion about “flourishing”: upon abandoning the “state of nature” in prehistory, human beings entered a process of cultural evolution that can also be called the “civilizing process.”
This process basically consists of controlling, through cultural means, the aggressiveness characteristic of all higher mammals: a necessary instinct in the struggle for scarce resources and one that is part of the evolutionary factors. Human beings don’t need aggression because, thanks to cooperation and intelligence, they can achieve abundance. In an economy of scarcity, aggression is necessary. In an economy of abundance, it’s merely a hindrance.
“Flourishing,” therefore, can only be the definitive control of human aggressiveness. JJ Rousseau told us that the human “state of nature” was harmonious and non-aggressive: false, because social mammals are ALWAYS aggressive (against outsiders and within their own group). The entire error of Marxism and class struggle was based on this illogical view (the end justified the means, for them). Hobbes told us that human beings are aggressive (like all animals) and are also INCORRECTIBLE.
There are many reasons to consider (gradual control of aggression throughout the development of civilization) that controlling aggression through cultural means is possible to limits we cannot estimate today.
A movement like EA, based on unlimited altruism, must be consistent and engage in cultural innovation initiatives for controlling aggression. We must view altruism as a consequence of this process of controlling aggression. That should be the true “flourishing.”
“Controlling aggression through cultural means”: basically, strategies to internalize moral values of prosociality, acting as “artificial instincts”, that allow for non-aggressive, rational, empathetic, benevolent, and altruistic behavior.
What strategies are available? Many: ideology, arts (symbolic narratives), behavioral practices, scientific and technological development… SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
Just a suggestion about “flourishing”: upon abandoning the “state of nature” in prehistory, human beings entered a process of cultural evolution that can also be called the “civilizing process.”
This process basically consists of controlling, through cultural means, the aggressiveness characteristic of all higher mammals: a necessary instinct in the struggle for scarce resources and one that is part of the evolutionary factors. Human beings don’t need aggression because, thanks to cooperation and intelligence, they can achieve abundance. In an economy of scarcity, aggression is necessary. In an economy of abundance, it’s merely a hindrance.
“Flourishing,” therefore, can only be the definitive control of human aggressiveness.
JJ Rousseau told us that the human “state of nature” was harmonious and non-aggressive: false, because social mammals are ALWAYS aggressive (against outsiders and within their own group). The entire error of Marxism and class struggle was based on this illogical view (the end justified the means, for them).
Hobbes told us that human beings are aggressive (like all animals) and are also INCORRECTIBLE.
There are many reasons to consider (gradual control of aggression throughout the development of civilization) that controlling aggression through cultural means is possible to limits we cannot estimate today.
A movement like EA, based on unlimited altruism, must be consistent and engage in cultural innovation initiatives for controlling aggression. We must view altruism as a consequence of this process of controlling aggression. That should be the true “flourishing.”
“Controlling aggression through cultural means”: basically, strategies to internalize moral values of prosociality, acting as “artificial instincts”, that allow for non-aggressive, rational, empathetic, benevolent, and altruistic behavior.
What strategies are available? Many: ideology, arts (symbolic narratives), behavioral practices, scientific and technological development… SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
EA is a social movement.