By Robert Wright. This simple Darwinian truth has illuminated vast stretches of our mental life. Not because minds have to be that way.
Most mammals lack stereo vision, and dung flies surely find dung delicious.
No, our experiences are adaptations of a brain that allowed our ancestors to survive in an environment where a fall from a tree could mean death, and ripe fruit contained precious glucose. These too are products of a brain that could have been wired otherwise. It lucidly explains our understanding of the evolution of human moral sentiments and draws out provocative implications for sexual, family, office and societal politics. But Mr. Wright's main lesson comes from the very fact that morality is an adaptation designed to maximize genetic self-interest, a function that is entirely hidden from our conscious experience. Our intuitive moral principles, he says, have no claim to inherent truth and should be distrusted.