Why do animals care about their offspring?

[Mosheh Thezion]

animals... are often social.... they need each other.

love.. is a great evolutionary advancement... it helps a species.

-MT

 

[nds1]

IT is a chemical inbalance in the brain... a nice one.

but.. it maynot be an inbalance... just a developed state.

Possibly. In that case, we are not in control. We are slaves to our genes.

 

[spidergoat]

Our genes give us the potential for love, but that does not reduce the mystery or the beauty. In the animal kingdom, I think there is love, but also mere bonding.

 

[tablariddim]

Animals that nurture their offspring until they're able to look after themselves do it because hormonal changes trigger certain nurturing instincts that if the animal didn't posses, would mean the rapid extinction of that species.

 

[Raithere]

Why do animals care about protecting and raising their offspring? If animals have no sense of ethics or morals, why don't they simply just have sex, have the offspring, and abandon them on the spot? I mean, these are animals, right? Why do they care at all about their offspring? There are no marriage laws or child support laws, so naturally if every animal lives purely for self-interest, why then do they protect and raise their offspring?

Humans didn’t establish, language, philosophy, and ethics and then decide to behaving according to a logically established set of values.

Morality is biological; it’s an indwelling behavioral adaptation that evolved because it increases the chances of survival of a community of social animals. Examine any social animal and you will be able to discern a system of behavioral morality. The only difference is that humans are able to conceptualize their morality and apply our cognitive skills to the topic.

~Raithere