Is Murder Wrong?

Is Murder Wrong?

I think the answer for human beings must be "yes". Murder could in certain relatively strained scenarios promote one's genetic lineage, it seems clear that in general murder is counterproductive regarding the end of genetic reproduction. Moreover, it is clearly opposed to the means and virtues which are associated with that end. Reason, emotion, association, kinship, kindness, etc range from disapproval of the act of murder to outright condemnation. None of these seem to approve generally of murder. I think the possible tension that may appear - that the end of reproduction appears to be served by a means opposite to the means and virtues logically associated with that end - should be interpreted as evidence that the act is not so likely as it may appear to serve the ultimate end.

One recourse against my line of argument would be to point to the likely history of human ancestors benefiting in genetic terms from murder. I do not think recorded history is replete with examples (which is something of a reply in itself). Even supposing cavemen occasionally benefited genetically from murder, it seems clear (on the basis in part of the universal human recoil against casual murder) that murder was fundamentally anti-genetic.

However, I don't think the question of the immorality of murder can be answered affirmatively for all hypothetical species of beings. Social insects, for example, should not regard a murder of a worker by the queen as unconscionable. I think even if social insects were fully sentient in the same sense as human beings, they would not experience a human-like sense of moral outrage upon witnessing a murder of this type.

Unlike ants regarding other ants, human beings are fundamentally genetically precious to each other. Each human being has a genetic payload which overlaps with his or her peers, such that the survival and reproduction is a good in itself to perfect strangers (from the genetic point of view). The procreation of a perfect stranger is as much a boon to a given individual as is the procreation of that individual's own (sufficiently) distant descendant.