Challenges for Evolutionary Ethics

How can a trait that was developed under the pressure of natural
selection explain moral actions that go far beyond reciprocal altruism
or enlightened self-interest? How can, for instance, the action of
Maximilian Kolbe be explained from a biological point of view? (Kolbe
was a German priest who starved himself to death in a concentration camp
to rescue a fellow prisoner.) 

Could not human beings have moved beyond their biological roots and
transcended their evolutionary origins, in which case they would be able
to formulate goals in the pursuit of goodness, beauty, and truth that
"have nothing to do directly with survival, and which may at times
militate against survival?" (O'Hear, 1997: 203).

Morality is universal, whereas biologically useful altruism is
particular favoring the family or the group over others. 'Do not kill'
does not only refer to one's own son, but also to the son of strangers.
How can evolutionary ethics cope with universality?

Normative ethics aims to be action-guiding. How could humans ever judge
an action to be ensuring long-term survival? (This is a practical rather
than conceptual problem for evolutionary ethics.) 

Hume's 'is-ought' problem still remains a challenge for evolutionary
ethics. How can one move from 'is' (findings from the natural sciences,
including biology and sociobiology) to 'ought'?

Similarly, despite the length of time that has passed since the
publication of Principia Ethica, the challenge of the 'naturalistic
fallacy' remains. 

Evolutionary ethics is, on a philosopher's time-scale, a very new
approach to ethics. Though interdisciplinary approaches between
scientists and philosophers have the potential to generate important new
ideas, evolutionary ethics still has a long way to go. 

Back to Table of Contents
References and Further Reading
Darwin, Charles (1871, 1930) The Descent of Man, Watts & Co., London. 
Fieser, James (2001) Moral Philosophy through the Ages, Mayfield
Publishing Company, Mountain View California), Chapter 12 "Evolutionary
Ethics." 
Hume, David (1740, 1978) A Treatise of Human Nature, Clarendon Press,
Oxford. 
Maxwell, Mary (1984) Human Evolution: A Philosophical Anthropology,
Croom Helm, London. 
Midgley, Mary (1980) Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature, Methuen,
London. 
O'Hear, Anthony (1997) Beyond Evolution: Human Nature and the Limits of
Evolutionary Explanation, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 
Ruse, Michael (1995) Evolutionary Naturalism, Routledge, London. 
Spencer, Herbert (1874) The Study of Sociology, Williams & Norgate,
London. 
Wilson, Edward O. (1975) Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
Woolcock, Peter G. (1999) "The Case Against Evolutionary Ethics Today,"
in: Maienschein, Jane and Ruse, Michael (eds) Biology and the Foundation
of Ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 276-306. 
Back to Table of Contents
 Author Information: 
Doris Schroeder 
Lecturer in Philosophy
Institute for Environment, Philosophy and Public Policy 
Lancaster University, Furness College 
Lancaster, LA1 4YG, United Kingdom
 
© 2002 

"It's uncertain whether intelligence has any long term survival value.
Bacteria do quite well without it."
 Stephen Hawking
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