[Junior]

Why should I care what's good for society, or for the group?

Because without the group your chances of survival go way down. As an individual, you are not the fastest or strongest critter in the environment and would be short work for some mediocre predator if you don't starve first. As part of the group, though, you can have help fighting off the predators or hunting for food.

The proto-people with the greatest sense of cooperation were able to survive and pass their genes on. Those lacking this sense were slowly weeded from the genepool.

[bluepistolero]

Actually, in many animal and human populations, the young males are encouraged to become independent and leave the group. This trait of self-independence is highly prized (after all it founded America and lives on in its ideology although the welfare state has neutered it to some extent,) and it is often these rogue males who add their genes to the pool, thus enuring that the domesticated group keep an edge and is able to survive.

bluepistolero

[Diamond]

Because without the group your chances of survival go way down.

So I should be selfish to be good? Assuming for the moment that is true, do I have a moral obligation to survive?

Cordially,