Warning: Amateur science-y pondering ahead!
Speaking of this week's New Scientist: there was an article in there about the primate sense of justice that really got my brain going. Basically, the article said, for a long time human beings have thought that our ideas of morality - justice, fairness, sharing and so on - were fabricated, an invention of our own that covers our true, self-serving natures. This is called 'veneer theory', summed up by biologist Michael Ghiselin with the joke, "Scratch an 'altruist' and watch a hypocrite bleed." But Frans de Waal, the writer of this article, reports behaviour in primates and even lower mammals that displays a basic system of fairness that looks very like the basis of our own. Her primary example was chimpanzees.
We've all heard of primates grooming, right? It's a pleasant activity that many animals engage in, and it has been observed that chimps will groom each other, returning the favour. But if they are interrupted, it seems this 'favour' will be remembered and returned at a later date - as de Waal says, they seem to keep track of incoming and outgoing services, like humans. Grooming another chimp also significantly raises one's chances of getting a big share of food and other favours. Do something nice and you get something nice done for you. It's not basic human decency - it's basic primate decency.
A specific and famous case of group justice occurred at Arnhem Zoo in the Netherlands. At the end of a very pleasant day, when all the chimps were laying about in their enclosure enjoying the evening air, the keeper called them in for the night and all of them came, except for two adolescents who decided they didn't damn well want to. The established rule of the zookeepers was that none of the chimps were fed until they were all inside, a rule which was fairly well drummed into the heads of the chimps. The longer these two adolescents refused to come inside, the more pissed off the entire group got, until, when they finally gave in, the keeper seperated them from the group to sleep so that the others wouldn't attack them. This proved a temporary measure: in the morning, still angry, the entire group chased these two all over their enclosure and beat them up as punishment. In the evening, the two adolescents were the first to come back inside.
And wow, does that smack veneer-theory over the head, because this really, really basic principal of give-and-take is what every society is based on. If someone does a favour, however small, for you, you return it; then they do you another in return for that, and you do another, and so on and so on - this is how people get along with each other.
Just think of what happens if you cook and your room-mate decides that they don't feel like doing the dishes. What's the first adjective that springs to mind in that situation? Arsehole! Inconsiderate bastard! So you do the dishes for them, fuming, and think they better do something to doubly make up for it. If this debt continues, you feel resentment (even if you are a peaceful and tolerent person who would never nag, it's still there), and the situation becomes untenable because that person is taking advantage of you, and that's just... rude!
Even a bystander would call that person an arsehole and an inconsiderate bastard, and this, too, is a primate thing. De Waal speaks of situations where one chimp is attacked by another, and after the fight a bystander will go over and embrace the victim. The result is that the hollering and fury and other signs of distress are abated. It's consolation. A debt of favour doesn't just bother the debted member, it appalls others. Come back to those names we heap on people who aren't doing their bit: selfish, inconsiderate. We think of them like this, and we treat them a little like this until they make up for it - it's a form of temporary ostracisation. The social group evicts them until they can learn to pay their favours. Chimps do it - we do it too.
It's really cool, because I'd never heard of veneer theory until I read this article, but the same idea occurred to me a while back, that hey! Everything we do benefits us in some way. Love someone? You get love in return, don't you? Altruism? You look good! And it really bothered me, so I thought about hearts and ponies instead.
The point remains, though: cynical types do harp on about how concepts like justice and virtue are sheer fabrication, that scratch the surface and we're all selfish fucks out for ourselves. But look at chimpanzees, who don't really have any such thing as homeless people and a wealth gap, let alone philosophy, and it becomes fairly apparent that this point of view is, for the most part, shit. Yes, we are selfish fucks. We really, really are. But we're social selfish fucks, us humans. We need each other. We do favours to get favour, and in so doing we create a society of mutual debt where everyone owes everyone else, and that's where bonds come from. Your parents made you and raised you, so you remember their birthdays and take care of them when they're old, and feel like a total shit if you don't. We call up our friends to whinge about our bloody inconsiderate flatmates, and feel much better (and closer to them) when they get all pissy on our behalf. We invent the machine of justice, and are all furious when it fails. As long as this system of give-and-take, this mutual debt, this baseline morality is upheld, the social group lives in relative happiness and (most important) prosperity.
If this is true, morality isn't a fabrication - it's older than humanity. And from an evolutionary standpoint, it's genius.
Well, that was long-winded; I hope it makes the slightest bit of sense. Link to the original article is here, but again it's only a preview.
Anyway, it's three a.m. - I think it's time to put my brain to bed.
We've all heard of primates grooming, right? It's a pleasant activity that many animals engage in, and it has been observed that chimps will groom each other, returning the favour. But if they are interrupted, it seems this 'favour' will be remembered and returned at a later date - as de Waal says, they seem to keep track of incoming and outgoing services, like humans. Grooming another chimp also significantly raises one's chances of getting a big share of food and other favours. Do something nice and you get something nice done for you. It's not basic human decency - it's basic primate decency.
A specific and famous case of group justice occurred at Arnhem Zoo in the Netherlands. At the end of a very pleasant day, when all the chimps were laying about in their enclosure enjoying the evening air, the keeper called them in for the night and all of them came, except for two adolescents who decided they didn't damn well want to. The established rule of the zookeepers was that none of the chimps were fed until they were all inside, a rule which was fairly well drummed into the heads of the chimps. The longer these two adolescents refused to come inside, the more pissed off the entire group got, until, when they finally gave in, the keeper seperated them from the group to sleep so that the others wouldn't attack them. This proved a temporary measure: in the morning, still angry, the entire group chased these two all over their enclosure and beat them up as punishment. In the evening, the two adolescents were the first to come back inside.
And wow, does that smack veneer-theory over the head, because this really, really basic principal of give-and-take is what every society is based on. If someone does a favour, however small, for you, you return it; then they do you another in return for that, and you do another, and so on and so on - this is how people get along with each other.
Just think of what happens if you cook and your room-mate decides that they don't feel like doing the dishes. What's the first adjective that springs to mind in that situation? Arsehole! Inconsiderate bastard! So you do the dishes for them, fuming, and think they better do something to doubly make up for it. If this debt continues, you feel resentment (even if you are a peaceful and tolerent person who would never nag, it's still there), and the situation becomes untenable because that person is taking advantage of you, and that's just... rude!
Even a bystander would call that person an arsehole and an inconsiderate bastard, and this, too, is a primate thing. De Waal speaks of situations where one chimp is attacked by another, and after the fight a bystander will go over and embrace the victim. The result is that the hollering and fury and other signs of distress are abated. It's consolation. A debt of favour doesn't just bother the debted member, it appalls others. Come back to those names we heap on people who aren't doing their bit: selfish, inconsiderate. We think of them like this, and we treat them a little like this until they make up for it - it's a form of temporary ostracisation. The social group evicts them until they can learn to pay their favours. Chimps do it - we do it too.
It's really cool, because I'd never heard of veneer theory until I read this article, but the same idea occurred to me a while back, that hey! Everything we do benefits us in some way. Love someone? You get love in return, don't you? Altruism? You look good! And it really bothered me, so I thought about hearts and ponies instead.
The point remains, though: cynical types do harp on about how concepts like justice and virtue are sheer fabrication, that scratch the surface and we're all selfish fucks out for ourselves. But look at chimpanzees, who don't really have any such thing as homeless people and a wealth gap, let alone philosophy, and it becomes fairly apparent that this point of view is, for the most part, shit. Yes, we are selfish fucks. We really, really are. But we're social selfish fucks, us humans. We need each other. We do favours to get favour, and in so doing we create a society of mutual debt where everyone owes everyone else, and that's where bonds come from. Your parents made you and raised you, so you remember their birthdays and take care of them when they're old, and feel like a total shit if you don't. We call up our friends to whinge about our bloody inconsiderate flatmates, and feel much better (and closer to them) when they get all pissy on our behalf. We invent the machine of justice, and are all furious when it fails. As long as this system of give-and-take, this mutual debt, this baseline morality is upheld, the social group lives in relative happiness and (most important) prosperity.
If this is true, morality isn't a fabrication - it's older than humanity. And from an evolutionary standpoint, it's genius.
Well, that was long-winded; I hope it makes the slightest bit of sense. Link to the original article is here, but again it's only a preview.
Anyway, it's three a.m. - I think it's time to put my brain to bed.