Evolutionary Moral Realism

Biological Theory 7 (3):218-226 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Evolutionary moral realism is the view that there are moral values with roots in evolution that are both specifically moral and exist independently of human belief systems. In beginning to sketch the outlines of such a view, we examine moral goods like fairness and empathetic caring as valuable and real aspects of the environments of species that are intelligent and social, or at least developing along an evolutionary trajectory that could lead to a level of intelligence that would enable individual members of the species to recognize and respond to such things as the moral goods they in fact are. We suggest that what is most morally interesting and important from a biological perspective is the existence and development of such trajectories, rather than the position of one particular species, such as our own, on one particular trajectory

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-08-27

Downloads
194 (#93,737)

6 months
9 (#144,107)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Michael Stingl
University of Lethbridge
John Collier
University of KwaZulu-Natal

Citations of this work

A Logic of Ethical Information.Joseph E. Brenner - 2010 - Knowledge, Technology & Policy 23 (1):109-133.
Affording Affordance Moral Realism.William A. Rottschaefer - 2020 - Biological Theory 16 (1):30-48.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The View From Nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Morals by agreement.David P. Gauthier - 1986 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 18 references / Add more references