W
e are, as Aristotle, Darwin, and many others realized, social by nature. We would have no moral stance on anything unless we were social. Fine, but what biological evidence supports the idea that humans are social by nature? Research in neuroscience has improved our understanding of what it is about wiring in mammalian brains, including human brains, that makes us social.
Very roughly, our infant brains are genetically set up to take pleasure in the company of certain others and to find separation from them painful. We are attached to mothers and fathers, to siblings and cousins and grandparents. As we mature, we become attached to friends and mates. These attachments are a profoundly important source of meaning in our lives, and they motivate a wide range of social behavior, including forms of caring and cooperating. To simplify, attachment begets caring, and caring begets morality.
As infants grow and ...
