9 Categories of Ethics and Morality
An exploration of the concept of right and wrong
I have always had an interest in how different people from different culture, nations and religions define the concepts of “right” and “wrong”.
I began considering this seriously, after reading the book The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations, 1966 nonfiction book by American writer Robert Ardrey.
In the book Ardrey explore the evolutionarily determined instinct of humans toward territoriality.
Ardrey points out that there are affects of this territoriality in most areas of human behavior and interaction.
Many who read Ardrey’s works, and yet do not really understand his premise, are likely to think in terms of “Survival of the fittest”. That is a common misconception by people who don’t understand what the word “fittest” means in this context, and confusedly think it means “strongest.”
“Fittest” means “best adapted for survival in an evolutionary niche.” The evolutionary niche of human beings is cooperative; we are a social species and we survive by cooperating with others. The fittest human beings are not the strongest, they’re the most cooperative, the most social.
