Abstract
Contrary to widely held assumptions, an evolutionary metaethics need not be non-cognitivist. I define evolutionary metaethics as the claim that certain phenotypic traits expressing certain genes are both necessary and sufficient for explanation of all other phenotypic traits we consider morally significant. A review of the influential cognitivist Immanuel Kant‘s metaethics shows that much of his ethical theory is independent of the anti-naturalist metaphysics of transcendental idealism which itself is incompatible with evolutionary metaethics. By matching those independent aspects to an evolutionary metaethics a cognitivist Kantian evolutionary metaethical theory is a possibility for researchers to consider.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beck, Lewis White: 1960, A Commentary on Kant's ‘Critique of Practical Reason’, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Bradie, Michael: 1994, The Secret Chain: Evolution and Ethics, SUNY Press, Albany NY.
Darwin, Charles: 1871, The Descent of Man, reprint Princeton University Press, 1981.
Gibbard, Alan: 1990, ‘Norms, Discussion, and Ritual: Evolutionary Puzzles’, Ethics 100, 787–802.
Gibbard, Alan: 1992, Wise Choices, Apt Feelings, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Hume, David: 1939–40, Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L.A. Selby-Bigge, rev. P.H. Nidditch, Oxford, 1978.
Hutcheson, Francis: 1725, Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. Reprinted in Collected Works of Francis Hutcheson, Vol. I, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, 1971.
Kahane, Howard: 1995, Contract Ethics, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham MD.
Kant, Immanuel: 1781, Critique of Pure Reason. Page numbers refer to first (A) and second (B) editions. Translations are my own based upon Kritik der reinen Vernunft ed. R. Schmidt, Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg, 1926.
Kant, Immanuel: 1785, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Page numbers refer to volume IV of Kants gesammelte Schriften, 29 vols., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1902 and after. Translations are my own.
Kant, Immanuel: 1788, Critique of Practical Reason. Page numbers refer to volume V of Kants gesammelte Schriften, 29 vols., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1902 and after. Translations are my own.
Kitcher, Philip: 1985 Vaulting Ambition, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
Kitcher, Philip: 1993, ‘The Evolution of Human Altruism’, Journal of Philosophy 90, 497–516.
Kitcher, Philip: 1994, ‘Four Ways of Biologicizing Ethics’, in Sober (eds.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 439–450.
Lumsden, Charles and Wilson, E.O.: 1981, Genes, Mind, and Culture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Nozick, Robert: 1981, Philosophical Explanations, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Pinker, Stephen, and Bloom, Paul: 1990, ‘Natural Language and Natural Selection’, Behavioural and Brain Sciences 13, 707–784.
Rachels, James: 1992, Created From Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism, Oxford.
Rauscher, Frederick: 1995, ‘Kant's Conflation of Pure Practical Reason and Will’, Proceedings of the Eighth International Kant Congress, Vol. II, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 579–585.
Rauscher, Frederick: 1996, ‘Pure Reason and the Moral Law: A Source of Kant's Critical Philosophy’, History of Philosophy Quarterly 13, 255–271.
Rawls, John: 1971, A Theory of Justice, Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Ruse, Michael: 1986, Taking Darwin Seriously, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Ruse, Michael: 1990, ‘Evolutionary Ethics and the Search for Predecessors: Kant, Hume, and All the Way Back to Aristotle?’, Social Philosophy and Policy 8, 59–85.
Ruse, Michael, and Wilson, E.O.: 1986, ‘Moral Philosophy as Applied Science’, Philosophy 61, 173–192. Reprinted in Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 421–438.
Sober, Elliott: 1984, The Nature of Selection, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
Sober, Elliott: 1993, Philosophy of Biology, Westview Press, Boulder CO.
Sober, Elliott: 1994a, ‘Models of Cultural Evolution’, in Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 477–492.
Sober, Elliott: 1994b, ‘Prospects for an Evolutionary Ethics’, in From a Biological Point of View, Cambridge University Press, New York, 93–113.
Spencer, Herbert: 1879, The Data of Ethics, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.
Uyenoyama, Marcy and Marcus Feldman: 1992, ‘Altruism: Some Theoretical Ambiguities’, in Keller and Lloyd (eds.), Keywords in Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 34–40.
Wilson, E.O.: 1978, On Human Nature, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Wilson, E.O.: 1984, Biophilia, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
RAUSCHER, F. How a Kantian Can Accept Evolutionary Metaethics. Biology & Philosophy 12, 303–326 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006521907071
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006521907071