It's pretty rich of you to demand scientific evidence that greed is not innate, when you provided no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that greed IS innate. Hypocrisy much?
There is evidence of altruism and social cooperation going back to Australopithecus afarensis. Altruistic people who are socially cooperative don't tend to be the greedy bastards.
>>"It's pretty rich of you to demand scientific evidence that greed is not innate, when you provided no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that greed IS innate"
Yes, I agree - you caught me :)
I am not contesting anything you said about evidence for "altruism" or "social cooperation".
I'm saying, is there ANY evidence/proof that "greed" is NOT natural (or for that matter that it IS natural)? Can this assertion be debated conclusively? Where does that leave us?
>>"Altruistic people who are socially cooperative don't tend to be the greedy bastards."
One can be altruistic at times and also greedy at other times. These emotions/behaviors are NOT mutually exclusive. Just like one can be good at times and bad at other times.
I would think that in a small community like a hunter-gatherer tribe, anyone showing too much selfishness and greed would be, er, sacrificed to the gods.
Maybe. But it's more complex than that. What about between tribes (when it comes to trading, for example)? One can think of many scenarios where there would have been a chance for greed to arise (think survival - i.e. being surrepticiously greedy for the purposes of survival, etc.)
It's pretty rich of you to demand scientific evidence that greed is not innate, when you provided no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that greed IS innate. Hypocrisy much?
There is evidence of altruism and social cooperation going back to Australopithecus afarensis. Altruistic people who are socially cooperative don't tend to be the greedy bastards.
Why would greed be less innate than altruism?
>>"It's pretty rich of you to demand scientific evidence that greed is not innate, when you provided no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that greed IS innate"
Yes, I agree - you caught me :)
I am not contesting anything you said about evidence for "altruism" or "social cooperation".
I'm saying, is there ANY evidence/proof that "greed" is NOT natural (or for that matter that it IS natural)? Can this assertion be debated conclusively? Where does that leave us?
>>"Altruistic people who are socially cooperative don't tend to be the greedy bastards."
One can be altruistic at times and also greedy at other times. These emotions/behaviors are NOT mutually exclusive. Just like one can be good at times and bad at other times.
I would think that in a small community like a hunter-gatherer tribe, anyone showing too much selfishness and greed would be, er, sacrificed to the gods.
Maybe. But it's more complex than that. What about between tribes (when it comes to trading, for example)? One can think of many scenarios where there would have been a chance for greed to arise (think survival - i.e. being surrepticiously greedy for the purposes of survival, etc.)