Charles
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second, the notion that behavior is guided by abstract moral principles is far from universal in human societies. How can moral desires and actions be the "foundation and glue" of human survival when some societies do not consider abstract moral judgments to be a basis for action? They survive just fine--until they come into contact with "civilizations" replete with abstract moral principles! (I suspect this gets back to different assumptions about what the word "morality" means. Just to be explicit about my position, I think Nietzsche's analysis in Genealogy of Morals is dead on.) Miles
^^^^^^^^ CB: All human societies have linguistic "behavior" that is guided by abstract principles , general symbolic systems, customs, traditions, culture that consist in abstract principles structuring affairs. Abstract principles guiding behavior is definitive of human society, human species-being.
Nietzsche in Genealogy of Morals is dead on for what society and what period ? Nietzsche's anthropology in that essay is atrocious , lots of delusionary Western ethno-centrism.