Modern Wisdom

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

Jan 7, 2023

01:17:41

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Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Asian Flush: The Adaptive Response to Drink Alcohol

02:24

Morality and Reproductive Potential

02:08

The Loss of Faith in Religion

01:44

The Implications of Cultural Evolution

02:15

Introduction

4min

Evolutionary Theory and Morality

2min

Gene Culture Co-Evolved

2min

Asian Flush Is an Adaptive Response to Encourage People Genetically to Not Drink

2min

What Is Morality?

2min

Is Individual Morality Adaptable?

2min

Is Morality the Product of Gene Culture?

3min

The Importance of Social Learning From Peers

2min

What Is the Human's Moral Mind?

4min

10.

Are There the Most Moral Emotions?

3min

11.

The Importance of Sympathy in a Human Society

3min

12.

Sympathy in a Small Scale Society

2min

13.

Are There Other Moral Emotions?

2min

14.

Is There a Good or Bad Emotion?

2min

15.

What Role Does Moral Disgust Have?

3min

16.

The Most Status Affecting Criteria for Attractiveness

2min

17.

The Evolution of Moral Emotions in the Primate World

3min

18.

The Relationship Between Moral Anger and Honor Cultures

2min

19.

The House of Lords in the US

2min

20.

The Evolution of Altruism

2min

21.

How Do Moral Norms Differentiate From Emotions?

3min

22.

Moral Grandstanding and Virtue Signaling

2min

23.

Is Religion a Norm or a Culture?

4min

24.

The Importance of Morality in Human History

3min

25.

Are We the Chosen Ones?

2min

26.

Is Religion a Good Adaptive Response to the Problem of Being Human?

4min

27.

What We Lost Was Faith in the Story, Not in the Things

2min

28.

Is There a Difference Between Belief and Practice?

2min

29.

Is There an Objective Morality?

3min

30.

Is Motherhood a Myth?

3min

31.

Is There a Feminist Movement Worth Having?

3min

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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