I work on the basis of the selfish gene - so I put things in the order of myself, then my close relatives, then my friends and the immediate society I live in, then the wider society I live in, and so on working outwards
But Why that order? Why not some other order? You've only pushed the explanations back a step.
I assume you know the theory of evolution and the selfish gene. So the order is because that is how evolution works. People and things which survive do so because they put their genetic survival first, things that don't put their genetic survival first do not survive, so any gene which represents an 'instinct' to ensure its own survival by direct breeding or kin altruism is going to outcompete a gene that switches off those instincts, in just a few generations. Hence there develop inbuilt imperatives to survive, which in human terms means that we have a very strong instinct to rank things according to their nearness to us. As a theory it is elegant, simple, and can explain a huge range of behaviour.
no subject
I assume you know the theory of evolution and the selfish gene. So the order is because that is how evolution works. People and things which survive do so because they put their genetic survival first, things that don't put their genetic survival first do not survive, so any gene which represents an 'instinct' to ensure its own survival by direct breeding or kin altruism is going to outcompete a gene that switches off those instincts, in just a few generations. Hence there develop inbuilt imperatives to survive, which in human terms means that we have a very strong instinct to rank things according to their nearness to us. As a theory it is elegant, simple, and can explain a huge range of behaviour.