Primitive humans had to work together to survive. Those that were cooperative would be beneficial to the group's survival and selfish ones harmful. The beneficial behaviour was eventually labeled good and harmful bad. Perhaps it's even hardcoded in our genes. This is still present in humans today. People feel lonely because they want to belong to some group and are afraid of failure because they could be rejected from the group which would mean lower chance to survive.
Excluding any possible religious reasons, I'd like to argue basic evolution theory: People learned that it is easier to survive as a tribe (compared to being alone). To increase the tribes survival chances, helping each other became vital. If I spent some time helping you, you can help me in return later on. Of course this only worked in small communities and the help offered had to have as little risk for my survival as possible, but it still helped. One such form of help may have been bartering ("I get the fur and you make clothes for both of us"). In the end, helping the members of the tribe became normal. While it did not stop people from fighting other tribes or even each other, those that helped each other - or did "good deeds" - had a higher chance to survive. A few millennia later, doing good deeds to increase our own chance of survival has been hard-coded into our DNA and education to enable society as a whole to grow.
Like others have said, doing good begets someone not hating you for doing evil things. Being neutral, like doing nothing, begets others shunning you for not doing anything. Being evil, like hindering progress, begets others hating you and ostracizing you, possibly wanting to take you out. What is good? What is evil? That's what others around you define. If all you have around you is a evil circlejerk, if you don't do evil, you will suffer much more than if you're evil as well. If all you have around you in goody-two-shoes, being evil will be easy for you, but so is being good, even being neutral is tolerated. If all you have around is hippy neutrals, all you'll see is people living in nature, dying of thirst and hunger if they do nothing, so they have to do something.
there are many source of good like love, i don't have to explain this do i? empathy, you are prolly a psycho if you haven't experienced it. to feed your ego, it feels good to see your self as a good person. survival, because you want to be treated the same, you want to make them indebted to you even unconsciously. conscience, survival instinct as a human who live in society. to stay connected to a person. there are many more but these are tye first ones that i can think of.
Because at the start we are good. So it comes to us naturally and we have several biological settings for it. Because we live in society. Because we have feelings and doing good brings about positive feelings. And as we often strive for happiness (a desire that can get distorted, like people chasing after money, I think they don't want money for the sake of it, but to build their happiness on it), it's easier to achieve by doing good things (in a "normal" first-world setting) because we get those positive feelings and we get the support of the people around us. And because we can still aim for good even when terrible stuff is happening.
The reason altruism as a practice exists is because it does provide a sociological advantage. If you consistently help others and not hurt others then they are more likely to help you or others associated to you. Similar social adaptations include the taboos of incest or cannibalism, or the burial of corpses at a minimum of 6 American feet under. Inbreeding increases the likelihood of genetic anomalies, cannibalism triggers a disease that kills your nervous system, and rotting corpses that aren't disposed of properly taint the surrounding air and water which spreads disease. What is dictionary "good" is defined by what is considered societally "good" because it would be the ravings of a mad minority otherwise. If a tradition/practice didn't serve a purpose it would not be passed down for generations. Regardless of what you believe about popular religions, under the anthropologist's lens religions such as the Greek or Egyptian ones evolved via passing own lessons kinda like Aesop's Fables. If there's lightning in the sky or you don't want the kids to go out at night, it's way easier to get it into their head with "God said so" or a story like "A wolf'll gobble you up" then by sitting them down and running them through the logic. Knowledge =/= Understanding and all that, cuz let alone adults dem kids are f'ing stupid and just won't listen no matter how many times you told 'em. Simplest way to control someone is emotions, and the simplest emotion is feeling bad. Make people feel bad in the right way and maybe they won't do what you want them to not do. Avoiding what is considered societally "good" just plain doesn't work. Humans are social creatures and we like what works; and what particularly works is working together. Even for people or characters that are considered villains, they need to feed troops somehow and promote some form of teamwork in order to get s#!t done. You need to provide something of what is considered "good" because there's a reason people use it as a synonym for "effective". Because what's "good" gets results and what's not "good" doesn't. That's why people do good. Because you've been taught so, because that's how the concept developed, and because you can't completely dodge what is considered "good". Plain and simple. A better question is Why do you do good?
Because i don't want to go to jail, duh! And doing good things can earn you a gold star sticker! Although...doing bad things can earn you one too, as long as you don't get called out for that
Agree with you except for one point, that being in saying anarchist environment doesn't work. It is entirely possible for an anarchic, or any other adjectives associated with 'evil', society to be stable and sustainable.
There was an infamous Stanford experiment, where some volunteers became prison guards and prisoners. Over the course of the study, it became clear that when given a chance to wield power and not have any fear, people gravitate towards being sadistic and evil. These volunteers were just daily Joes, but the prison guards became more brutal and the prisoners more submissive. All theories explaining why we do good start with the assumption of society, an assumption that initiates a feedback punishment system which threatens anyone who does things perceived by the society as being counter to what lends stability to the current form of society. Maybe, the proposed new society can also be stable, but the hierarchy in the established society won't allow it's benefits to be compromised. So... Why do we do good? It's because we hope to be treated good. The way we are brought up is also important factor.
Cuz it benefits them. The only reason we aren't still monkeys barely surviving on bananas and actually climbed to the top of the food chain is cuz we learned to cooperate. To place numbers above quality. To divide labor. To form a society. And for that to work, people can't be self-centered 24/7. Good is a pretty flimsy concept, to begin with. People just follow the instincts that make us homo sapiens.
Here is where a quote from Heath ledger's joker comes to mind - "They're only as good as the world allows them to be". And this accounts for majority of the good deeds in the world. People who have extra, donate. Those who have way too much extra donate for tax evasion. The rest of the good deeds come from empathy. Empathy is a rather curious response of the human brain. The ability to feel other people's emotions, allows you to be happy by making other people happy. Hence doing good deeds feels good, and that's why people do it.
Idk man something good for someone is something bad for another. Rather than saying that people do good or bad, I prefer calling it them doing what benefits them and causing good and/or bad situations for other people that have to do once again something that benefits them. It's all about benefits imo, good or evil is too subjective.
i have a close friend who does good because she's so emphatic that she cries for every homeless person and injured animal she comes across and she'd save them all if she could because it hurts her to see others in distress. but most people aren't like that, most people do it because it's expected, or for religious reasons, or because kindness is a choice. I do it because I've been there and know what its like to be hungry and have someone reach out and help; buying an extra burger or working in a soup kitchen is a way to pay it forward.
My mom brought me up to be considerate of others and this kind of teaching sticks for the rest of your life. I grew out of religion though, lol. I think humans on average are cooperative and it's biologically programmed in us. That's how our societies developed. There's a lot to be expanded on the topic, but I'm really not in an essay writing mood right now. The thing is, you should start by defining good and evil and then look at people's motivation to do either. And let's not forget the hardware we inhabit that influences our emotions and decisions - it's not only about morals. Me, being a fully healthy adult with a fully developed brain and a good upbringing, am prone to cooperate with others, help when I'm able, follow the law, and acts of evil cross my mind but I don't act on them as I realize I'm not the MC in this world and should adapt to others taking space and making noise around me. Personally, it's like an instinct to me and I don't need any promises of rewards to live that way.
Everyone has their own moral system and does good for different reasons. But the underlying reasons are probably like this: People are groomed by society to be good It is easier to live in society being good than it is being bad Humans are biologically driven to act in a way that is good Or alternatively, like Doflamingo said,