Modulous writes:
That maybe your natural instinct - but it might not be that guy's. What evidence do you have that his instinct was not to help. Maybe his instinct said help but his conscious thought tried to over rule it "Don't do it, it's dangerous, someone else will do it...somebody with more training and who hasn't just had a big meal....".
Yes and no. I contend that our natural instinct is the survival instinct but that our natural instinct can be adjusted by influences in our lives so that it does become more or less instinctive to do the unselfish thing for the benefit of someone else.
Modulous writes:
As humans, the instinct seems to be "go to extraordinary lengths to help out one of your own and go to extraordinary lengths to ignore or harm those that are not of your own." What is considered 'one of your own' is malleable. You could split 20 people into two random groups and members of both groups will feel they are stronger than the other team at whatever arbitrary task you assign them.
There does seem to be a great many people who do harm to their own and a great many people do good for those who are not of their own.
It seems to me that if you are going to make the argument that it is about maintaining your blood line then the only ones that would be considered 'one of your own' would be those in your own gene pool.
Modulous writes:
Convince someone that 'your own' includes your nation (With its Founding Fathers) and they might kill and die for their country (the best units are those with absolute cohesion...a 'band of brothers' you might say). Convince them it is their religious 'brothers and sisters' - and they'll kill and die for them just as easily.
Isn't that about being indoctrinated to overcome your natural instinct?
Modulous writes:
It is certainly beyond it's norm - but birds have been known to feed cuckoos and other bird's children to the point of self exhaustion (and have even fed fake birds setup by evil ornithologists, to exhaustion). Maternal and paternal instincts are incredibly strong - and if they 'make a mistake' the results can be striking.
Once again yes and no. I agree the paternal instinct can be strong but it also seems to end when the offspring mature and go off on their own. I know when we took our pup back to visit its mother there appeared to be zero recognition. This seems to be normal for all animals other than humans. If they lose the parental instinct for their own offspring then I'm inclined to think that there is more going on than just parental instinct in the case of the crow, although maybe less so for the gorilla.
Of course this is all just my opinion but it appears to me that animals, even wild ones, are capable of a degree of altruism that goes beyond their natural instinct.