[MD] example of reciprocal altruism?

[skutvik at online.no]

Craig, Platt and Group

28 Dec.

Platt:
> > A couple of monkeys behaving with reciprocity in a zoo is hardly
> > evidence of our inheriting a spirit (sic) of cooperation from our
> > animal ancestors.

    Pirsig "intellectual faith in man's basic goodness as 
    spontaneous and natural is disastrously naive...maybe it is 
    man's basic goodness which invented social institutions to 
    repress this land of biological savagery in the first place." (Lila, 
    24)  

Craig: 
> Pirsig's point is that evolution is not limited to biology.  Humans
> are evolving with their social instituions. Craig

The social level is tricky. The notion of biological "man" suddenly 
becoming cooperative and "social" is clearly wrong. As Platt quoted 
from LILA about the callousness shown by the Indians the social 
development was often more "bloodthirsty" than biology where 
carnivore animals only killed to eat. With society the whole "enemy" 
camp had to be wiped out. However we must realize that death did not 
have the same inhumane aspect at the social level as at the  
intellectual. Also it must be noted that the bio-socio. transition is 
infinitely older than the American Indians tribal system.  

IMO, social value is something else than cooperation. The upper level 
is about repressing/controlling the lower level's value patterns, and as 
biology primarily is feeding and proliferation the 3rd. level is about 
bringing this under control and we see till this day that religions (the 
chief "social" pattern) are preoccupied with food and sex: Endless 
rules and regulation of what's clean and unclean. These rules 
repressed biology and brought existence to a new moral plane, but it 
was not goodness - morality - itself that arrived, only a new moral step. 

Craig is right about Q-evolution not being limited to biology the social 
level was another step in the overall morality, but I doubt if  "humans 
evolved with their social  social institutions". As said the social level is 
extremely old and even countries, kingdoms, empires we regard as 
ancient - Babylon, Egypt, Assyria - are recent societywise. And these 
had no "institutions" if Craig means hospitals, old people homes, 
pensions ...etc. they were just as "callous" as the first tribes regarding 
the individual. What changed all this by repressing social  value 
patterns was the INTELLECTUAL level. 

IMO

Bo