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morality and immortality AND the "persistent" society

One argument linking morality and immortality speaks of punishment and reward: the following argument doesn't.  We discover moral principles by thinking of our actions (and those of others) as belonging to a society that persists: in fact, persistence is integral to that discovery.  When we think globally about morality, we think as if all rational beings do or could belong to a quasi-society that persists.  And persists.  And persists.  And that's a kind of immortality that we seem to assume when talking about morality at the cosmic level.

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