Originally Posted by kerry

Our primate relatives are very interesting from an ethical point of view. Just thinking about that today in relationship to whether Nietzsche is correct in his basic Master/Slave distinction. Early in our cultural evolution as a species, we didn't have slaves so Nietzsche can't be completely right. However, there are closely related primate species with pretty clear patters of dominance and submission in social relationships. The connection between our own ethics and those of chimps, gorillas and bonobos has to be pretty close.