Contemporary naturalism, especially through ethology, neuroscience and cognitive science, challenges the traditional ontological points of reference for determining the specificity of human beings. After illustrating the full measure of this upheaval, I will show the inadequacy of a return to traditional essentialism and will then defend the relevance of a different type of essentialism: an approach to human specificity in terms of a homeostatic property cluster.

Contemporary naturalism, especially through ethology, neuroscience and cognitive science, challenges the traditional ontological points of reference for determining the specificity of human beings. After illustrating the full measure of this upheaval, I will show the inadequacy of a return to traditional essentialism and will then defend the relevance of a different type of essentialism: an approach to human specificity in terms of a homeostatic property cluster.

Charles Darwin's thoughts on the place of man in nature and on the naturalist approach to morality, far from being a secondary and belated development in comparison with his theory of evolution, already take clear shape as early as 1838 and are later developed in The Descent of Man (1871). By examining the corpus of Darwin's published work (especially, The Origin of Species and the two editions of The Descent of Man, as well as his unpublished work (especially his notes (...) and letters), we attempt to highlight the originality of Darwin's answer to the question of morality, without, however, effacing his roots in Victorian society, with its strong prejudices about, e.g. the intellectual incapacities of women, the inferiority of the Irish, or eugenics, as expressed in the tortuous formulations with regard to his cousin Francis Galton. All the same, the role of moral freedom and deliberation in Darwin's thought remain largely underestimated. Neither does his approach take into account the optimal way for a group to respond to new ethical questions. In the final sections of this study, we examine the developments and continuities in Darwin's moral thought from his youth onwards, paying particular attention to the origin of the moral sense, the analogy of morals and instincts, moral freedom, the criterion of morality. (shrink)

Cet article étudie le développement des réflexions de Darwin sur l’éthique, de ses Carnets de notes à La filiation de l’homme . Loin d’être un épiphénomène tardif, l’approche naturaliste de l’éthique de Darwin est largement dessinée dès 1840 : elle explique la convergence du sens moral avec un critère d’utilité rétrospectif . Le travail ultérieur de Darwin clarifie la relation entre instincts et habitudes morales héréditaires, tout en soulignant le rôle central de la sympathie dans l’origine et l’évolution du sens (...) moral.This paper examines the development of Darwin’s reflections on morality, from his Notebooks through The Descent of Man . Far from being a late epiphenomenon, Darwin’s naturalist approach to ethics was largely in place by 1840: it explains the convergence between moral sense and a retrospective utility criterion . Darwin’s later work clarifies the relation between instincts and hereditary moral habits, while underlining the central role of sympathy in the origin and evolution of moral sense. (shrink)

Cet article étudie le développement des réflexions de Darwin sur l’éthique, de ses Carnets de notes (1836-1844) à La filiation de l’homme (1871). Loin d’être un épiphénomène tardif, l’approche naturaliste de l’éthique de Darwin est largement dessinée dès 1840 : elle explique la convergence du sens moral (James Mackintosh) avec un critère d’utilité rétrospectif (William Paley révisé). Le travail ultérieur de Darwin clarifie la relation entre instincts et habitudes morales héréditaires, tout en soulignant le rôle central de la sympathie dans (...) l’origine et l’évolution du sens moral. (shrink)