Ethics

What is the origin of human ethics? How did ethics come into existence?

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I am inclined to think that any very definite answer to this question would amount to a "just so" story--in other words, it would be pure speculation, as we obviously have no access to the origins of ethics, which would appear to be pre-historic (that is, before anything was written down so as to be preserved for future generations). But doesn't it seem plausible to think that ethics will become a topic of interest just as soon as (a) human beings start to congregate together, and (b) human beings wonder about what might make their lives better. Since my guess is that it would be difficult for some creatures to qualify as a human population, if the members did not do (a) and (b), my own speculation would be that ethics has its origin in human nature itself. (That, by the way, is anything but an original speculation--have a look at the very much more sophisticated version of this idea in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, especially Book I.)

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