A complex topic. Although Doug is right saying that this behaviour can be probably explained as a spandler, there are differences in how individuals and groups feel about helping and judging others. Liberals feel that everybody deserves out help, conservatives think that we ought to help those in our group before the rest (e.g., supporting the soldiers), and this help should be based on what those in need “deserve.”
“Agreed.”
People are also willing to favour those individuals who need help when they are the same race, even though it’s debatable if this is a result of kin selection. A lot of these differences can be explained through various adaptations, but the field of evelitionary psychology is young and it is therefore perhaps too soon to jump into any definitive conclusions. What is exciting, though, is that scientists finally seem to be on the right track.
Young and immature, imho. Hard to tell about the track when they’re like that.
Also, I am not sure what this is doing in the philosophy forum. Kant, Plato, Hume and others had their try and got us nowhere. It’s time to use the only tool that works to find out what is really going on here, and that tool is obviously science.
*goes to check the shed*
Inclusion Criterion #2: A lot of philosophy, present probably included, is a fallacious pile of crap.