Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man. For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them. The services may be of a definite and evidently instinctive nature; or there may be only a wish and readiness, as with most of the higher social animals, to aid their fellows in certain general ways. But these feelings and services are by no means extended to all the individuals of the same species, only to those of the same association…. after the power of language had been acquired, and the wishes of the community could be expressed, the common opinion how each member ought to act for the public good, would naturally become in a paramount degree the guide to action. But it should be borne in mind that however great weight we may attribute to public opinion, our regard for the approbation and disapprobation of our fellows depends on sympathy, which, as we shall see, forms an essential part of the social instinct, and is indeed its foundation-stone. Lastly, habit in the individual would ultimately play a very important part in guiding the conduct of each member; for the social instinct, together with sympathy, is, like any other instinct, greatly strengthened by habit, and so consequently would be obedience to the wishes and judgment of the community.

 

Our moral capacities, Darwin reasoned, are rooted in sympathy. These capacities are constrained by association or familial relatedness (anticipating what would come to be called, nearly 100 years later, kin selection theory). They are strengthened by habit and social practice. Later, in explaining acts of altruism, Darwin makes an even stronger claim:

Such actions as the above appear to be the simple result of the greater strength of the social or maternal instincts than that of any other instinct or motive; for they are performed too instantaneously for reflection, or for pleasure or pain to be felt at the time; though, if prevented by any cause, distress or even misery might be felt. In a timid man, on the other hand, the instinct of self-preservation, might be so strong, that he would be unable to force himself to run any such risk perhaps not even for his own child.

 

Our evolved tendencies toward goodness, Darwin proposed, are performed with the automatic, well-honed speed of other reflexes—the flinch of the body at a loud, unexpected sound, the grasping reflex of the young infant. They are stronger than those toward self-preservation, the default orientation of timid men. Darwin’s early formulations of the social instincts of humans were clearly tilted toward a positive jen ratio, where the good is stronger than the bad.

CRO-MAGNON FIELD NOTES

 

There are many books I would love to read but, alas, never will: the autobiography of Jesus; a stream-of-consciousness narrative of Virginia Woolf’s last thoughts as she plunged into the River Ouse, weighed down by heavy rocks tucked into her coat pockets. As alluring as those certain best sellers would be, at the top of my list would be the field notes of a Cro-Magnon anthropologist, who would have had the wherewithal to travel through Africa, Europe, and Asia to characterize the social life of our most immediate hominid predecessors some 30,000 to 50,000 years ago.

A detailed portrayal of the day in the life of our hominid predecessors would shed light on our environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). The EEA is an abstract description of the social and physical environment in which the human species evolved. It is within this environment that certain genetically based traits—for example, to avoid foods with foul odors that signal decay, to respond with charm and sexual readiness when a female is ovulating—led to greater success in the games of survival and reproduction, and became encoded into the human genome, while others led to increased probabilities of fatality and cold shoulders from potential mates, and quickly to the scrap heap of evolution.