Abstract

I argue that an examination of the nature of moral intuition shows it to be unsuitable as a basis for moral theory. I draw a comparison between moral and mathematical intuition based on theories concerning the evolutionary formation of the capacities for each. In this context I develop a theory of the evolutionary origin of guilt that serves as a model for some general proposals about the origin of moral experience and intuition. I conclude from the comparison that the capacities for mathematical intuition were shaped so as to accurately reflect mathematical reality, but the capacities for moral intuition were not shaped in accordance with any analogous moral reality. I then argue that it follows that moral intuitions have no special authority and have no truth conditions independent of particular moral systems.