In Praise of Traditional Women

[Mish]

So to summarize everyone's arguments on the subject:

Miso:
Morals are learnt

CB:
Morals are learnt but groundwork for morals is with us inherently

Indi:
Genes don't know what's right and wrong therefore morals are learnt (unless right means survive and wrong means death)

Fras:
Feral children exist therefore morals are learnt and ability to empathize is through upbringing

Dalia:
All this might give some physical basis for mental illness

Vash:
The subject is boring

Eco:
Morals are not inherent, but an element of right and wrong is instinctive to us. It's somewhere between nature and nurture

Cam:
Men will screw anything on the path to #1

Bored George:
Women should accept that they are useless and stupid

Coco:
I don't like this thread

[Junket]

You may now close the thread Mod Mish.

[IndiReloaded]

innate ability to learn morals. i'm glad you're starting to see things my way.

Finally we are getting someplace. Exactly, we need to separate the hardware from the software:

Innate/instinctive/nature = hardware = genes = ability to learn

Learned/nurture = software = the actual moral code program

Look at languages, which we all know are learned. However, our ability to learn language seems hardwired. Human babies are definitely predisposed to learning language, but if you miss that critical 'window' of learning opportunity, language becomes much harder to acquire. In other words, a human child of French parents won't speak french if s/he is raised by Klingons. There is no 'innate' french that will come out (however much the French would like it to be true).

Likewise, we are hardwired to try to learn the 'language' of social interactions. Its an evolutionarily selected trait. We seek out other humans b/c they help us survive, but only if we can get along with them. The lessons we learn as children from these interactions become our 'rules' of conduct, i.e. morals. Again, humans who miss this 'window' (e.g. feral children) their 'moral language' ability are messed up.

Don't you young ones read classics like Tarzan? Or Jungle Book? The books, not the disney movies.

[IndiReloaded]

You may now close the thread Mod Mish.

Oops, well, I responded to Miso post & then saw this.