Review: The Bonobo and the Atheist, By Frans De Waal

[LTX]

6. Perhaps "imposed" is too suggestive of the theistic concepts from which De Waal is trying

to distance himself. But "ingrained" is, in my view, an equally murky term. From whence the "values" that become "ingrained"? In what do they become "ingrained"? (Neurotransmitters? Vesicule gates? Electrons popping through proteolipid membranes?) And what is the mechanism by which immaterial "values" otherwise materialize in sentient cell conglomerations?

Don't get me wrong. I actually think De Waal is on the right track, and he is an indisputably perceptive observer. Altruistic interaction and apparent value judgments increase in complexity along various branches of the evolutionary tree, so it certainly seems (almost self-evidently) the most profitable course to follow the track of development along ancestral branches. But there seems something a touch disingenuous about replacing inexplicable "imposition" from above with (currently) inexplicable "ingraining" from below.