The evolutionary definition of good and bad

If there were other experiences that had any real quality of good value and worth in my life for me, then I would be selfish for not considering these experiences. But since my good feelings are the only experiences that have the quality of real good value and worth to my life, then these are the only things I have to make my life good and worth living. It has nothing to do with me being selfish. As I said before, my good feelings are like the actual awareness of good value and worth in my life just as how sight and hearing are the actual awareness of visualizing objects and perceiving sound. Calling me selfish would be no different than calling a blind or deaf person selfish since it can only be their hearing and seeing that would allow them to see and hear.

My point is saying it's a selfish mindset is that you can wrap yourself up in causing misery for others because it brings you joy, happiness, contentment to do so. Not saying this is your mindset, I'm saying your line of reasoning justifies this because you are saying joy grants value. Yeah but at what price?

I am not advocating the idea that you are free to harm others. All I am saying here is that the person who harms the baby/child and gets a good feeling from that would perceive that situation as having good value and worth to him/her. However, for another person who feels horrible from that such as anger or sadness, then that would be a bad situation for that individual.

Evolution sems to be suffering in this discussion. We can only surmise the evolution of the definitions of good an bad as consequences of the adaption to , and the growth of community.

Did humans "come down from trees" as paleoecolgy says (based upon climatological history of African Savanna?). Banding into familial nd then LARGR ND LARGER GROUPS REQUIRED THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLE"RULES" which benefit or harm the community.
Some of the first rules of good and bad may be nothing like what we are used to today.

I think much more can be concluded by using history rather than cherry picking from outliers of human behavior.

This is a horrible metaphor. Life requires quite a bit of work and expends energy. In this metaphor a lifeless planet would be "good" and a planet teaming with life would be very "bad".

I am agreeing with Farmerman (I think).

Ideas about "good" and "bad" only exist within human society... and they vary from society to society. What is "good" in modern human societies is certainly not the same as it was in earlier human societies. The rules required for the functioning of a colony of ants is quite a bit different than that of a human society. Of course, humans evolved the quirk of thinking about "morality" as a thing because it has survival value as social primates.

Our ideas of right and wrong are a function of the culture we were brought up in. If we were brought up in a different culture, our ideas about right and wrong would be quite different.

This forum needs moderators...this person's threads are reaching a "Dear Diary" status...

...ooh, don't call in the sanitizing team, for fracks sake.
I every stupid thread open around was to be closed than 70% of them would shut and A2K come to a sudden death. The daily bread of theses forums is shite with some lost pearls as anywhere else.

You can moderate this forum yourself....

.... for starters, you could just not post anything.

*snort* Well, that's not a terrible point. i have been a member of this forum for about 8 years, and at one time i was an earnest one. Now, i show up about every 6 months, for a couple of weeks, and try to contribute to the thread or two that have popped up, in the meantime, regarding the history of Φ. And then (!) i just confront other forum participants when i think they are using bullshit arguments and/or are being disingenuous in their posts, that is, until i become appalled at the extremity of my own assholery. Then i retreat, once again...

ie...i am an asshole often enough to warrant banning...

i recognize that my most recent posts are not, and probably should not be, appreciated by most regular contributors (i'm no longer really a part of the culture on this here region of the internet), but lacking guidelines or guidance -- i say whatev...

PS: this quote -->



wasn't directed towards you, if that's why you're reacting to me. It was directed at the OP. I don't know if that was apparent up front...MozartLink constantly posts multiple threads with the same basic theme - sans argument.

i, honestly, disagree. i do agree with you that there are some really smart, insightful participants on this forum. But the "pearls" aren't produced by the stupid threads, they're written in spite of them.