On 15 Jan 2015, at 20:47, meekerdb wrote:
On 1/15/2015 9:58 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
I would have said by nature. Apes does not sent his fellows in gas
chambers.
But they do. Sometimes chimpanzees gang up on member of their pack
and kill him.
You are right. Chimps was not the best example. Mammals!
people misbehave in a large part due to civilisation, which reacts
naturally in developing those software at a different level, which
is slow adaptation.
Civilisation is the extension of tribal relations to all the people
of a city (or state). Humans tend to have natural tribal relations
with a few dozen people. To have those extended to hundreds or
thousands requires culture, laws, and government. So it is not that
civilisation causes misbehavior, it's that it redefines the
boundaries within which fraternal behavior is mandated. Steven
Pinker's book "The Better Angels of Our Nature" argues that this
civilizing influence has been very successful in reducing misbehavior.
I think so too, but it is better in non-obscurantist era, when we
learn to do our job, and stop imposing religion in academy, by making
it a field of inquiry instead.
The rejection of my thesis was not by the scientists, but by a
philosopher, based explictly on his convictions, as anyone can see
with the official report. In my university, some atheists limit free-
thinking by explicitly silencing anything capable of leading to
doubting the weak materialist dogma. Since John XXIII, the popes are
better than that.
It is important, I think, because many believes in mechanism and
materialism, but this leads to nihilism and person eliminativism (as
illustrated by the Churchland, and Dennett, but also Sade and
LaMettrie, etc.).
Bruno
Brent
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