Thursday, April 03, 2014

Libertarians don't understand altruism


Altruism is not necessarily as enfeebling as Nietzsche thought it was---and as some of his libertarian followers think (eg. Ayn Rand). Within groups, altruism help lead to success in survival and reproduction, which is why it evolved to be part of human nature. Egocentrism tends to develop with individualism. This does not mean that the individual is not important, individual selection does take place, but within groups, and the primary unit of selection is group selection, as the great E.O. Wilson has recently affirmed. If libertarians fully understood this they would be conservatives.

Values and morals developed out of the survival needs of group selection, and not merely so that the “weak” can enfeeble the “strong” as Nietzsche claimed. Universal human nature is centered in these selection strategies, but human nature can become corrupted in various ways, such as survival values being distorted to advance (at least temporarily) anti-social elements within society, or only individuals, etc.

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