Comments below... Because the thing is, humans, at a fundamental level, cannot prefer or value more highly, what they even unconsciously hold as detrimental.
Nonsense. People do this all the time, continue behaviors that they consciously *know* are detrimental to them. Their position within an imaginary hierarchy has no relationship to whether they continue those behaviors or not. People can be very good at rationalizing behaviors they enjoy but know are detrimental. (Has nothing to do with the person's "position within an imaginary hierarchy.") My guess is that having preferences or hierarchies is hard wired into us for survival value. I disagree. I see nothing wrong with preference or believing in hierarchies, but I definitely don't see them as the same thing. Despite your attempt at what you thought was a clever remark earlier, having a preference does NOT imply believing in a hierarchy. It was a perceptive observation, not an "attempt at a clever remark." And having a preference does imply having a hierarchy of personal values. Many of these are shared; some aren't. Many shared values are consonant with survival and reproduction. Whether that's because evolution built them into us is another question. And we may well have values that have nothing to do with "survival of the fittest." So I don't think it's either/or.
