The origins of morality. Searching for human in primates (The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates)

This book by Frans de Waal is definitely interesting and raises important questions. It’s called “The Bonobo and the Atheist.” “In Search of Humanism Among the Primates” is the book. Judge for yourself: The author has studied primates for many years, and his research mainly focused on chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives. What is stated directly in the title The author talks a lot about religion and faith and its connection with morality, which is well stated by mentioning an atheist. The words humanism and primates are more beautifully played, since the former refers better to human beings:) Interestingly, in the book itself, the translation is quite good and there are good editorial comments explaining and clarifying some points.

If we talk about the idea of the book, the author consistently shows how empathy works in the animal kingdom on the example of human-like apes. He also talks about mirror neurons, which help to virtually experience the same sensations that another primate experienced. And besides this, a cross-cutting motive is the idea that morality is something innate, and not brought from somewhere above. That is, it is some tool useful for the survival of a species in which the key to success was effective work in groups, which required compliance with certain rules and fair division of production. (The criteria of fairness may vary, but must be understood by the group.). As a result, the author moves away from the concept of “top-down” morality to the “bottom-up” approach, which means that even without the formulation of these commandments, something in ourselves as a form helped us to observe them ourselves and maintain their observance in our groups.

The author concludes his book with a small fictional conversation between bonobo and atheist, which ends as follows: “Our most famous “moral laws” perfectly retroactively summarize what we consider moral, but are limited in scope and full of gaps. In fact, morality has a much lower origin, which is easy to recognize in the behavior of other animals. Everything that science has learned over the past few decades contradicts a pessimistic view; morality is not a thin layer of varnish on the surface of abhorrent human nature. On the contrary, without a solid evolutionary foundation, we could never have advanced so far, from the ape-like ancestors of primitive origin to modern man.”

This view is encouraging and allows us to believe in the further development of man as a species:)

#Biology #Management #PopularScience #Brain