Moral systems are judged by survival value, not by preference

Evidence

Morality and religion, therefore, are not mere matters of likes and dislikes. You may dislike exceedingly a scheme of morality which, if universally practised within a nation, would make that nation the strongest nation on the face of the earth. Yet in spite of your dislike, such a nation will become strong. You may like exceedingly a scheme of morality and an ideal of justice which, if universally practised within a nation, would make it unable to hold its own in the struggle with other nations. Yet in spite of your admiration, this nation will eventually disappear. The Hindus must, therefore, examine their religion and their morality in terms of their survival value. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1014

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s existing interest in how caste norms persist or fail; the survival-value framing complements the sacrifice-as-stabilizer argument by proposing an inverse mechanism for caste collapse.
• XREF: connects to: Nietzsche’s morality of the strong reduces justice to survival and power — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 85; Liberalism’s equal valuing of affects reduces conduct to survival-driven maxims; Moral ideals reduced to subjective preference fatally weaken opposition to reality — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 555 (+1 more)