surreptitious57 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:00 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote:
Many human actions do not seem to be reducible to survival
Human beings now have far more leisure time than they did at any other point in our history
A lot of that time is taken up with activities that have absolutely nothing to do with survival
Such as for example watching television or surfing the internet or listening to music or reading books
The amygdala was once fundamental to our survival as it determined the correct response to fear but nowadays is used relatively little
Whereas the pre frontal cortex which deals with abstract thinking is used significantly more since we are now a more educated species
The more civilised we have become the less primitive we have become
so survival is not as fundamental to our existence as it once was
Society is more regulated and we have made advances in eliminating illnesses and are more knowledgeable across very many disciplines
The quality of life of the average human is significantly better now than it was I00 000 years ago when
homo sapiens first came into existence
Indeed it is significantly better now than it was even I00 years ago not because of survival but of science - not because of fear but of education
"
so survival is not as fundamental to our existence as it once was"
You are a bit lost here.
Note my justified true moral fact;
"
No normal human will volunteer to be killed or die prematurely."
There is no exception to the above for any 'normal' human being because DNA/RNA wise they are "programmed" like a 'robot' to strive to survive.
As such survival is a still a very fundamental impulse within all normal human beings.
Humanity has made exponential advances, and this is directed to survival at the fundamentally level.
Humanity seek more advances medicine and other technologies to ensure they don't die easily, thus to ensure survival.
A small percentage are risk takers and some are very reckless and lackadaisical with their life, but these are the exceptions on the normal distribution scale.
There are ironic cases, where the impulse for survival, somehow is antithetical to their survival, but nevertheless in such cases, the survival instinct is still fundamental.
For example the need to eat is for survival, but some abnormal eaters overeat themselves to death despite knowing the threat of death.
In the case of suicide bombers, their survival instinct drove them to theistic religions which command them to be suicide bombers with a promise of an eternal life in paradise with virgins.