I think you are pointing in the right direction when you say you understand that societies that discourage murder probably have better prospects than those that do. I’m far from well read in this topic but I think the basis of ethics/morality (in a general way, at least) is our evolution.
A collective with a feeling that murdering is bad will, in the long run, outlive a collective without that feeling. Keep that feeling for long enough and their society as a whole will rationalise it. Something similar can be said for, at least, many of our other moral preferences.
Societies which embed these “feelings” better in their norms will tend to outlive the other societies and, at the same time, will reinforce those feelings. In ancient times before proper justice institutions that could enforce these norms, religions were a good way to guard them.
Thinking this way, morality is broadly the set of feelings we have that help a society (or pack, or family, etc) to thrive. We have them because we are descendents of the members of the societies with 1) more subjects having roughly these feelings and 2) which were better at reinforcing them (the feelings) culturally.
As side note, I am pretty convinced that incest and inter-family romantic relations will stop being morally wrong in the future (in a similar way that homosexual relations are not morally wrong any more). Incest being morally wrong makes sense when the purpose of having sex is reproduction, because it may lead to progeny with problems. However, sex and progeny are now pretty much decoupled. I don’t see any reason why, if two members of the same family want to have a relation, they should not. And, indeed, I don’t feel any moral reaction to that. It may take some time, as it is taking quite some time for humans to develop feelings for humanity as a whole (as opposed to in/out group thinking), but I think the process is running already.
I think you are pointing in the right direction when you say you understand that societies that discourage murder probably have better prospects than those that do. I’m far from well read in this topic but I think the basis of ethics/morality (in a general way, at least) is our evolution.
A collective with a feeling that murdering is bad will, in the long run, outlive a collective without that feeling. Keep that feeling for long enough and their society as a whole will rationalise it. Something similar can be said for, at least, many of our other moral preferences.
Societies which embed these “feelings” better in their norms will tend to outlive the other societies and, at the same time, will reinforce those feelings. In ancient times before proper justice institutions that could enforce these norms, religions were a good way to guard them.
Thinking this way, morality is broadly the set of feelings we have that help a society (or pack, or family, etc) to thrive. We have them because we are descendents of the members of the societies with 1) more subjects having roughly these feelings and 2) which were better at reinforcing them (the feelings) culturally.
As side note, I am pretty convinced that incest and inter-family romantic relations will stop being morally wrong in the future (in a similar way that homosexual relations are not morally wrong any more). Incest being morally wrong makes sense when the purpose of having sex is reproduction, because it may lead to progeny with problems. However, sex and progeny are now pretty much decoupled. I don’t see any reason why, if two members of the same family want to have a relation, they should not. And, indeed, I don’t feel any moral reaction to that. It may take some time, as it is taking quite some time for humans to develop feelings for humanity as a whole (as opposed to in/out group thinking), but I think the process is running already.