Matthias Wasser wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 9:14 AM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
> > It's been speculated that we could genetically engineer people to be
> > altruistic enough for socialism.
> >
>
> Why would socialism require particularly altruistic people?
>
A number of points here. First, SS's evolutionary theory is pure nonsense and has been known to be nonsense for decades. It's not worth commenting on.
Now, "altruism" is, I'm afraid, established as a technical term in biology, but it's an unfortunate term. It was coined by Comte and brught into English by tranlations of Comte. In other words, it is a concept grounded in an extrme atomised conception of society (cf. Margret Thatcher on society does not exist, only individuals and families). Given such a (non-existent) world of abstract, dot-like, individuals coming from nowhere and forming social relations, the concept of altruism is needed to explain cooperation. But social relations and cooperatin are the given. That's whre we start, with the evolution of a species the core feature of which is cooperative social relations. (No corporation could last a day without cooperation -- cooperation unforced by either altruism or self-interest.)
So this whole discussion has t aken a nonsensibcla turn.
Carrol