These statements (#MaC) form part of the Morality as Cooperation Quiz

What is morality? Where does it come from, and how does it work? And how and why do moral values vary, between individuals, and across cultures?

The theory of ‘morality as cooperation’ (MAC) argues that morality is best understood as a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life. MAC draws on evolutionary game theory to argue that, because there are many types of cooperation, there will be many types of morality.

These include: family values, group loyalty, reciprocity, heroism, deference, fairness and property rights. Previous research suggests that these seven types of morality are evolutionarily-ancient, psychologically-distinct, and cross-culturally universal.

Take the Quiz to work out what your particular mix looks like.

Who are our heroes and how are we really honouring them?

• I feel the people which society determines as heroes are difficult to outline.
• There are people society may generally regard as a hero but which many may disagree with and not want to honour, such as Winston Churchill. (My previous arguments for this can be found here)
• Whether someone is a hero seems much more of a personal, subjective opinion that also can be acted upon an individual level - the way we may honour family members who we perceive as our heroes whereas society would not see them the same way.
• Additionally, what is meant by how we honour heroes seems very vague.
• One has seen issues with this in recent times with the appreciation of 'NHS Heroes' in the UK.
• I strongly believe more should be done for NHS workers, who throughout the pandemic were frequently referred to as 'heroes' by society.
• Many believed we were honouring them by acts such as clapping at a certain time every Thursday and that this was sufficient.
• However, I argue to honour them properly we should show this gratitude and respect through increased wages, better working conditions, free parking etc.
• A similar point can be made for veterans.
• Society generally views Veterans and those currently deployed as heroes.
• Whilst I do not necessarily agree that these people are all automatically heroes, I think more can be done to properly honour them.
• The way in which people argue they are currently 'honoured' is through talking about military service in a certain respectful and admirable way, thanking veterans for their service, and even glamorising their experiences.
• Yet people do not show symmetry between their words and actions, by voting against policies that will provide Veterans with adequate mental health treatment and reduce homelessness rates.
• There is a substantial disconnect between how we believe we are showing respect to those we admire, and the actions which would genuinely benefit them.
• It is not up to society to decide who is a hero and worthy of honour, rather there is more society should do to properly honour each other in general.

What heroes? According to history, the winners tell the story, and the winners depict themselves as heroes. In our history book and for holidays we depict toward these 'heroes' as something or someone different from everyone else.
These foundation led me to be skeptical of this.

-today, we are awake enough not to praise just anyone that we are told we should praise
-it takes the actions of many, not just the catalyst, to make such change
-we are all human; I fear calling someone a human a hero puts certain people on a pedestal that shouldn't have that much power.
-who we consider heroes depends on our morals and very rarely do our morals align. Not everyone considers the same people heroes.