8/20/2026
Morality, at its base form, is an evolutionary strategy of cooperation. It is the observation that I have wants and desires and the realization that other people also have wants and desires. This realization is called empathy. When wants and desires conflict, morality serves as a solution.
A child discovers if they take another child's toy, they might retaliate and take his toy. So if he doesn't want his toys taken, he will cooperate and won't steal toys. Morality is knowing, I don't want to be punched in the face, so I don't punch other people in the face. We learn that cooperation is an optimal strategy for us to achieve our wants and desires, which has been baked into our brains evolutionarily via the instinct of empathy. Like all evolutionary instincts, sometimes it is not passed to the next generation. These individuals are diagnosed with psychopathy or other anti-social disorders. As evolution tells us, the instincts that help us survive are most likely to be passed to the next generation, that is why the vast majority of humans have empathy.
At the core, morality is a self-serving game theory strategy to best fulfill my wants and desires. Humans evolved into tribes and so we are tribal by nature. Humans realized that if they cooperate with fellow humans, the tribe can divide tasks and gather more resources than any individual on their own. If I share the food I gathered with my tribe, they will share their resources with me. My moral kindness to a fellow tribal member benefits me and my survival. It is the strategy that we give up some wants and desires but that it will pay off in more beneficial ways in the future.
Another framing is that morality is an evolutionary survival strategy of the tribe. If the tribe dies, so do you. If the tribe thrives, so do you. Morality keeps the tribe thriving and in harmony.
As I have said in the past, morals are subjective and evolve with time and culture. So how do we determine what is moral and what is not? What is the foundation for morality? It is not found in a god, though people often associate morals with gods (an effort to impose authority), it is found in our ability to reason with our instinct of empathy. I have outlined 3 pillars of morality that I ground my morality in.
Human well-being can be described with synonyms such as joy, happiness, comfort, contentment, health and safety. It is living a meaningful life with purpose as chosen by that person. Well-being is both a short-term and long-term consideration. Because of that, conservation of natural resources, global bio-diversity, and health of the environment also gets included in well being, so that future humans have a planet that can provide for them.
Reduction of suffering can also be thought of as reducing pain. A moral act looks to reduce the suffering or pain of others and it is considered moral to help people achieve basic needs of food, shelter and dignity. Like well-being, short and long-term suffering is considered during any moral decision-making process. Often choices of short-term pain must be made to prevent larger future suffering. Trade-offs are part of any moral decision.
Fairness incorporates the concepts of justice and trust. It is the moral judgment of fairness that alleviates the free-rider problem within the tribe and addresses those who violate the moral order of the tribe (think tribal rules and laws). Moral cooperation needs fairness to keep order and to make members of the tribe feel valued and respected. Judgments of fairness can be some of the most complicated moral decisions to make.
If an action is achieving any of these 3 pillars, then what you are doing can be justified as good. If an action is detrimental to achieving any of these 3 pillars, then what you are doing can be justified as bad. If an action does not move any of the 3 pillars, it can be considered morally neutral.
Let's look at an example: Don't kill another human. This is probably the most widely agreed on moral precept, but even it is not absolute. If I kill a member of my tribe = morally bad. If I kill someone from another tribe who is taking resources we consider ours = morally good. I can become a war hero by killing outsiders and my tribe will celebrate me. Today, we glorify our military for 'defending' our nation, but that price is often our military killing other humans that are just trying to live and survive as we are. We can see that killing another human can be justified as morally good when protecting the interests of the tribal in-group.
The lesson is morals are never absolute and most often defer to the survival and success of the tribe.
As a humanist, the goal is to expand the net of cooperation and tear down the tribal walls to extend morality farther. Humans could be one global tribe. Using these 3 pillars of morality, humans can evaluate any situation and come to the best moral decision for them and their community and their planet.