Darwinian evolutionary ethics: Between patriotism and sympathy

摘要: Darwin believed that his theory of evolution by natural and sexual selection would stand or fall on its ability to account for human behavior. No species could be an exception to his theory without imperiling the whole edifice (Gruber 1974, chap. 1o). He thus eventually devoted the Descent of Man to developing an evolutionary account of human origins based on selection, but also on the inheritance of acquired variation. What Darwin called the" moral faculties" were a major part of his account of humans. One of the most striking features of human behavior is our very elaborate social life involving cooperation with large numbers of other people. As the philosopher-historian Robert Richards shows in elegant detail (1987), the Descent was a sophisticated piece of work that even today repays close study, not least for its theory of the evolution of morality. Darwin made four main arguments regarding human morality:(1) that it is a product of group selection;(2) that an immense difference exists between human moral systems and those of other animals;(3) that human social instincts are" primeval" and essentially the same in all modern humans; and (4) that moral progress is possible through using the instinct of sympathy as the basis for inventing and favoring the spread of improved social institutions. Modern studies of cultural evolution suggest that Darwin's arguments about the evolution of morality are largely correct in their essentials.