[Buddha-l] Morals in 6 months old kids

[Richard Hayes]

On May 23, 2010, at 2:55 AM, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> "With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of 
> moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year 
> of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone."
> 
> Why don't we apply these experiments on politicians? Do we fear the results?

The most tempting answer is that few politicians have yet reached the emotional age of one-year-olds. But another answer also suggests itself. A recent study by a developmental psychologist at McGill University has shown that children learn to tell lies at the age of about two years and six months. The claim is that learning to tell lies is a crucial developmental skill, since it shows that the child recognizes that there are other minds out there, and that other minds have beliefs and desires different from one's own, and that if one is going to get one's way then one had better find a way to cause others to have the same desires as oneself. The first strategy that suggests itself is to tell lies. Children who do not learn to tell lies at the age of 2.5 or so usually have cognitive disabilities of some kind. Later on, of course, children acquire other ways of achieving uniformity of desires in other minds. The adult method, of course, is to pay people lots of money. That method seems to work well on most politicians. In dealing with other minds who happen to live in other countries, threatening to send in the US Marines usually works pretty well as a method of persuasion.

By the way, I have changed the settings of buddha-l slightly. From now on, all messages will be moderated. Contributors who make deposits into my PayPal account will see their messages approved. Priority will go to those who make the biggest deposits.

moderately yours,
Richard