On 2 Sep 2008 at 19:07, William T Goodall wrote: > I think that our capacity for ethics comes from our social animal > nature but that telling good from bad comes from thinking about ethics > using our intelligence.
Per Dawkins, animal group behavior works out essentially selfish in the genetic sense. This isn't of course a bar to forming ethics, but it does create issues extending them outside your "tribal grouping" - most animals don't form the larger sort of associations Humans do. > And if it's like mathematics it raises the question would aliens > develop the same ethics as us? At least part of our ethics comes from our perceptive organs and our social and biological interaction mechanics. I think it's fair to assume that aliens would differ in these at least slightly and the ethical systems may vary. > Fortunately people don't spend much time arguing about which language > is 'best' ;-) They don't? Heh. AndrewC _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
