I dunno. I suspect a lot of people are skeeved out by insects and mice particularly for the same reasons that they freak out preschoolers.

Around three or four is when little kids really begin to understand that they are separate from other people and that they are individuals. Insects - and sometimes other animals like mice - freak a lot of preschoolers out at this age because they finally understand that even little things like insects have minds of their own, and the idea that other things have agency and can’t be controlled and manipulated like a block or a ball scares them. It seems logical to me that this would carry through to adulthood for some people.

And yes, it seems illogical that they would freak out over the small things they can’t control, and not the big things they can’t control. But preschoolers tend to obsess over illogical fears precisely because you can do something about a spider, but you can’t do a whole lot about a polar bear. You can refuse to watch a scary movie or insist on a night light, but you can’t do anything to keep mom and dad from dying.

FYI, this is also about the time most kids become obsessed with gender. They are trying to create an identity - and categorize others - and declaring “I’m/he’s/she’s a boy/girl” is a really easy way to do that. Thus the popularity of Disney Princesses among preschoolers who often have never even seen half the movies.

If I think of it as “we have an instint for purity” I kind of go “meh,” but if I think of it as “we are instinctively set up to be taught what is icky” I can’t really disagree.

Not that there is any specific thing that it is natural to find icky as a universal human experience, nor that we can’t train ourselves to de-ick something we were taught, just that “Ick” seems to be a universal human experience in some form.

Have you spent a lot of time caring for infants or toddlers? I’m not sure that “Ick” is in fact a universal human experience in any kind of pre-programmed or pre-programmable form.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if training kids into having that sense were an integral part of any culture that survives past the point of clusters larger than a clan, just for the obvious bacteriological reasons.

It’s wrong to prick a kid’s hand because it hurts them, it’s wrong to steal the TV because it harms the company or the person who bought it, it’s wrong to slap someone with or without their permission because it hurts them, it’s wrong to lie about your country because lying for no good reason is wrong…well, there’s my irrationality showing up.

The fifth one just grosses me out, though like someone else said, I’ve got no problem cleaning up after a relative or changing a diaper. So does that fall under “community”?

The Republicans have only themselves to blame, Sam.

“we are instinctively set up to be taught what is icky” I can’t really disagree.

The only exception is language. The evidence IMO is really strong that humans have an instinct to use language (spoken or signed) and with certain parameters. This is one reason I suspect “purity” as a moral quality is tied up in language, somehow.

Can you think of an animal behavior that looks like a concern for purity? The closest thing I can think of is food aversion,

Unfortunately, the conclusion is sheer creationism, firstly, and secondly, the basic premise is false since intuitive judgments vary both intra- and inter-subjectively, making them useless as data. The past thirty years have consistently demonstrated this, as has this entire thread. Pinker is just the leading cultist, a Tom Cruise of Chomskyism.

One might say that the only legitimate authority is the one that is freely given. Not quite sure yet if I agree, have to consider it.