January 07, 2023

How Did Human Morality Evolve? - Dr Victor Kumar - #573

1 hour 15 minutes

Dr Victor Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, part of the Mind & Morality Lab's Moral Psychology Research Group and an author.

Morality might seem like something that exists independently of humans. Things are either good or bad, the current evolutionary state humans in in should not impact this judgement. Yet it seems that culture and evolution heavily influenced each other, and they influenced morality too.

Expect to learn why Asian people get red faces when they drink alcohol, which moral emotions can be detected in chimpanzees, why sympathy can be seen as investment advice, how come some people can consume milk and others can't, whether moral grandstanding and performative empathy on Twitter can be explained by evolution, the reason for altruism existing and much more...

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:32) Is Evolution Relevant to Morality?

(06:50) How Dr Kumar Defines Morality

(14:10) Features of the Human Moral Mind

(19:05) Why Humans Differ to Chimps on Respect

(29:11) Are There Bad & Good Emotions?

(35:06) When Humans Developed Moral Emotions

(43:12) How General Altruism Evolved in Humans

(47:55) Evolution of Virtue-Signalling

(51:23) Did Religiosity Evolve?

(1:06:23) Is Morality Objective?

(1:14:33) Where to Find Dr Kumar

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Check out Victor's website - http://www.victorkumar.org/

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By Chris Williamson

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