Monkeys and apes remember who has hit or bitten them and can exact revenge hours or even days later. In species that share food, the sharing is not random but related to other favors performed between individuals. Finally, social animals ceaselessly fight and make up, often with other members of their community getting into the act. Although conflicts over food, mating opportunities, offspring and dominance can be severe, reconciliation follows through grooming, embracing or kissing. Third parties not involved in the original conflict often bring the combatants together, and all members of the community celebrate when reconciliation finally takes place.
Human parallels involving forgiveness and mediation readily come to mind.
Evolutionary biology offers a way out of this impasse by showing how the moral order of a social species arises from the competitive struggle of the selfish genes to replicate themselves. It explains morality not as the conscious design of a divine maker or as the intentional quest for happiness by individuals, but as behavior that has become genetically entrenched through differential reproductive success. Unlike antisocial chimps, social chimps who groom each other help build a successful community, which in turn means greater success for their genes and thus for them as individual members of a social species. Transferred to our own species, this objective approach to explaining the existence of morality would help us understand, respect and enforce our own moral nature. For anyone concerned about the moral vacuum of contemporary society, Good Natured is a profoundly hopeful book.