From my perspective, cooperation exists because it is often mutually beneficial. When individuals perceive cooperation as advancing their own interests with acceptable costs, cooperative behavior becomes the rational outcome, but once it becomes either detrimental or doesn’t have the importance they attach to it, they mostly become selfish immediately and won’t care about the consequences to humanity or something like that. So for me, it isn’t a matter of ethics or morality; rather, humans just get defensive and selfish once their personal interests are destabilized.
Yes thats why we are not talking about cooperation. People co-operate because it provides a direct benefit to the co-operator. We are talking about why certain tyoes of selfless behaviour have become commonplace.
Mind if I butt in?
Cooperation is definitely beneficial to the peeps involved. To me it’s an enlightened approach to life and its complexities. Non-cooperating folks don’t get that far. Evolution is all there is, as you can see. Cooperating genes like for example a community translates into better mating opportunities and such a group can preferentially breed certain traits they like - it’s the same as breeding docile but loyal and obedient dogs. However this is like being in a breeding program which means quite an interesting number of things like, am I specimen number 321A?
Perhaps a minor detail which can be ignored in the great game of evolution, in the great scheme of thingies.
Selflessness may require the selfless to exit such programs i.e. there’s a difference between cooperating and being selfless. Selflessness, though, isn’t commonplace. I feel you’re conflating cooperation with selflessness, which raises the question, what are the distinguishing marks of cooperation and selflessness?
Oh yes! But we’re not ONLY selfish, right?
What do you mean? I’m sorry, I don’t understand.