The Evolution Of Goodness

My personal response

In the article, it says that human beings are willing to do good to others because they are related to one another. This is why they are willing to do good for the other person, this could be seen as an act of love for the other person. However, this statement could be seen as a generalization. If goodness is only done because a person is related to the other, would the same person still be good to other people, who are not related to him/her, simply because of the fact that they are not related? Omitting close friends (whom one would relate to as family), this would mean that people who are complete strangers, one you would randomly meet across the street, are not deserving of your goodness.

Thus, this would lead to one questioning why are there such things as SOS, the police station and even helplines at all. The people who help you willingly with open arms barely know you. In fact, they might have just met you. From this example, I believe that is more than just interrelationship that leads to a kind act of goodness in being carried out.

Drawing an example from a personal experience, I was playing around with a wheelchair and was challenging myself to lift myself onto the pavement from the road, while still in the wheelchair. It took a lot of my effort and although it was just for fun, my thought was provoked by a woman who offered help to me. I was playing around with the wheelchair but there she was, a total complete stranger to me, who willingly offered help towards me as if I was indeed having difficulty. Certainly, this wasn't an act of reciprocal goodness or reciprocal altruism, but a pure and kind act of goodness, without any form of motive(s) in helping me.

Through this debate of goodness and also the philosophy of ethics and behaviour, there are many theories that were formulated just to encapsulate subject of goodness. Theories such as the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule were formulated and famous philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Confucius both had had their take on this intricate yet complex subject. Although all their efforts indeed provide answers for the evolution of goodness, there is yet to be a theory which fully answers it.

As such, I practically feel that goodness, happens because of the heart that a human has, the heart that feels for others and sympathise with those who are disadvantaged. Why then, does our heart wrench when we see and hear of tales of the suffering in Africa, and of those who face the wrath of nature, such as the recent Burma cyclone?