The first problem is Me versus Us. This is, once again, the basic problem of cooperation, the Tragedy of the Commons. Our moral brains solve this problem primarily with emotion. Feelings of empathy, love, friendship, gratitude, honor, shame, guilt, loyalty, humility, awe, and embarrassment impel us to (sometimes) put the interests of others ahead of our own. Likewise, feelings of anger and disgust impel us to shun or punish people who overvalue Me relative to Us. Thanks to these automatic settings, we do far less lying, cheating, stealing, and killing than we otherwise could, and that enables
...more