Darwin On Moral Intelligence

[Philosophy Now]

Vincent di Norcia applies his mental powers to Darwin’s moral theory.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/71/Darwin_On_Moral_Intelligence

[Nick_A]

From the article:

But for social life to prosper, spread and endure, people must gain from coexisting and interacting with others. Active, mutually-beneficial reciprocity is needed. From now on, when I say ‘reciprocity’, I will mean this positive, mutually-benefitting sense. Reciprocity so defined is in fact evident in much social behaviour: sex, friendship, dining, work, communication, games, negotiations, politics and trade. Since the benefits of benign interaction outweigh the benefits of avoidance, active reciprocity emerges and soon spreads: mutually-beneficial reciprocally altruistic social interactions reinforce associating with others. It is a robust force for social cohesion and continuity, and much more evolutionarily sustainable than mutual threat and strife. With the help of moral aggression in punishing violators, it suggests a solution to the so-called Prisoner’s Dilemma, where altruism is not reciprocated: Act peacefully or altruistically until the other person acts threateningly or selfishly. Then respond in kind, and punish violators. This last, I note, constitutes a negative form of reciprocity. But one should try to restore peaceful interaction as soon as possible, for we are intelligent social actors, not prisoners.

It all appears very lovely but also very naive.

“Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in bliss so that nothing but bubbles would dance on the surface of his bliss, as on a sea...and even then every man, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer libel, would play you some loathsome trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive rationality his fatal fantastic element...simply in order to prove to himself that men still are men and not piano keys.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground & The Grand Inquisitor

No matter how PC and lovely ‘reciprocity’ appears, the idealists forget that Man is a pain in the ass. As such ‘reciprocity’ has a short life span. Simone Weil explains why but the World including Darwin will reject it with a passion so the results of human nature will prove themselves once again regardless of all the wonderful thoughts.

"Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace." ~ Simone Weil

Left to our own devices, humanity is simultaneously capable of the greatest compassion as well as the greatest atrocities. Reciprocity sounds nice but once we admit that the desire for prestige far outweighs the altruistic theoretical goal of reciprocity, it becomes obvious we need help from above in the form of grace to illuminate the human psych. But it is denied in the secular world so what you see is what you get.