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A meta-ethics reflection about the three chimps.
We know that chimps societies are in a meta-stable Molochian equilibrium of violence, but you can tip them off with more resources into a more pacific state.
There is supposedly a "universal" progress of society towards a more moral baseline, such as less slavery, less torture, more freedom, but there were also notable exception. I was thinking about the seventeen's century Venice, which was freer than contemporary Venice. But at the time Venice was one the most powerful city-state in the Mediterranean sea, and was enjoying considerable wealth.
So my thinking went: there are at least two modalities in our ethics, one more resembling the chimps societies, the other closer the bonobo way of life, and we oscillate between the two based on the wealth available. This would mean that the moral progress is actually a progress in wealth, which tips off an oscillation in the bonobo region of our ethical system.
Thoughts? Counter-examples?
Whether there is "universal progess" in described sense depends on which start and end points do we choose. If take say from Middle Ages to today, then there is. If from Paleolithic to the height of Roman Empire, then trends would be exactly opposite, a march from freedom to slavery. So growth of per capita wealth can coexist with different directions of moral change.