Comment on
* Darwin's work vis a vis human nature, including what is "natural," where do morals come from, can science answer all questions? and/or
* eugenics and/or
* sociobiology
What meaningful quotations can you share from the text (chpt 10)?
"man has risen, though by slow and interrupted steps, from a lowly condition to the highest standard as yet attained by him in knowledge, morals, and religion."
ReplyDeletein this quote, I feel as if Darwin is saying the reason that we are higher on certain scales of thought is because we are higher on the evolutionary chain, and thus our mental faculties, and capabilities are higher.
I see this as being a partial reason, in as such that when can put names and terms to such things, such as reasons to such things.
animals have morals, or other such trains of thoughts of things they will not, or should not, do. whether they lack the ability to rationalize such thoughts is another matter entirely,
so I agree with him in that our higher evolution gives us capabilities to do such, but not with his ideas that we are the only ones who can do this.
I think that animals are capable of emotions, but I do not see how they have morals. They do not have the level of cognition we possess, so I think they cannot differentiate between what is moral or not.
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