Moral evolution is a viable hypothesis and appears to have two easily understandable tendencies: the control of aggression and the promotion of cooperation. There seems to be evidence that there are comparatively some societies that are less aggressive and more cooperative than others. It is in this evolutionary context that we can contemplate an “objective morality.” We do not know to what extent cultural (or civilizational) constraints can control aggression and promote cooperation, but it would be absurd to assume that we have reached the limit today.
What we do know is that, of all cultural constraints, the most effective are those that psychologically affect the individual’s motivation when interacting with their peers: autonomous morality. Moral principles are emotionally internalized until they impact the “sphere of the sacred,” where moral emotional reactions are equivalent to the force of instinct (“culture is the control of instinct,” wrote Freud).
There will be no more effective altruism than that which manages to develop these civilizational possibilities in the sense of an altruistic economy.
Moral evolution is a viable hypothesis and appears to have two easily understandable tendencies: the control of aggression and the promotion of cooperation. There seems to be evidence that there are comparatively some societies that are less aggressive and more cooperative than others. It is in this evolutionary context that we can contemplate an “objective morality.” We do not know to what extent cultural (or civilizational) constraints can control aggression and promote cooperation, but it would be absurd to assume that we have reached the limit today.
What we do know is that, of all cultural constraints, the most effective are those that psychologically affect the individual’s motivation when interacting with their peers: autonomous morality. Moral principles are emotionally internalized until they impact the “sphere of the sacred,” where moral emotional reactions are equivalent to the force of instinct (“culture is the control of instinct,” wrote Freud).
There will be no more effective altruism than that which manages to develop these civilizational possibilities in the sense of an altruistic economy.