Abstract
Many think that evolutionary biology has relevance to ethics, but how far that relevance extends is a matter of debate. It is easy to show that “pop” sociobiological approaches to ethics all commit some type of naturalistic fallacy. More sophisticated attempts, like Donald Campbell's, or, more recently, Robert Richards', are not so easily refuted, but I will show that they too reason fallaciously from facts to values. What remains is the possibility of an evolutionary search for human nature. Unfortunately, evolutionary theory itself seems to imply that the quest for human nature will not be very promising. As far as there is such a thing as human nature, we will have to know it before we can meaningfully talk about its evolution. Anthropological data suggest that we differ widely in our normative judgments. And even where we seem to agree, there is good reason to doubt that we really do so.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Campbell, D. T.: 1978, ‘Social Morality Norms As Evidence Of Conflict Between Biological Human Nature And Social System Requirements’, in Stent (1978).
Edel, M. and Edel, A.: 1968,Anthropology and Ethics — The Quest For Moral Understanding, The Press of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
Foot, P.: 1967,Theories Of Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Haraway, D. J.: 1984, ‘Primatology Is Politics By Other Means’, PSA (proceedings of the 1984 conference) Vol.2, 489–524.
Harding,S. and Hintikka, M. B. (eds.): 1983,Discovering Reality, Reidel, Dordrecht.
Hubbard, R.: 1983, ‘Have Only Men Evolved?’, in Harding and Hintikka (1983).
Hull, D.: 1978, ‘A Matter of Individuality’,Philosophy of Science 45, 335–360.
Kitcher, P. S.: 1985,Vaulting Ambition, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Leaky, R. E. and Lewin, R.: 1978,People Of the Lake, Avon Books, New York.
Mackie, J. L.: 1977,Ethics — Inventing Right and Wrong, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK.
Mackie, J. L.: 1978, ‘The Law Of The Jungle: Moral Alternatives And Principles of Evolution’,Philosophy 53, 455–464.
Maris, C. W.: 1981,Critique Of the Empirict Explanation Of Morality, Kluwer, Deventer.
MacNabb, D. G. C.: 1967, ‘David Hume’, in P. Edwards (ed.)The Encyclopedia of Philosophy IV, 75–90, Macmillan, New York.
Midgley, M.: 1980, ‘Gene-juggling’, in Montagu (1980).
Montagu, A. (ed.): 1980,Sociology Examined, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Moore, G. E.: 1942, ‘Reply To MyCritics’, reprinted in Foot (1967, pp. 33–49).
Murphy, J. G.: 1982,Evolution, Morality, And The Meaning Of Life, Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa.
Olson, R. G.: 1969,Meaning And Argument, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York.
Richards, R. J.: 1986a, ‘A Defense Of Evolutionary Ethics’,Biology and Philosophy 1, 265–293.
Richards, R. J.: 1986b, ‘Justification Through Biological Faith: A Rejoinder’,Biology and Philosophy 1, 337–354.
Ruse, M.: 1973,The Philosophy Of Biology, Hutchinson University Library, London.
Ruse, M.: 1979,Sociobiology: Sense Or Nonsense?, Reidel, Dordrecht.
Ruse, M.: 1984a, ‘The Morality Of the Gene’,The Monist 67, 167–199.
Ruse, M.: 1984b, ‘Is There A Limit To Our Knowledge Of Evolution?’BioScience 34, 100–104.
Ruse, M. and Wilson, E. O.: 1985, ‘The Evolution Of Ethics’,New Scientist, October 1985, 50–52.
Sahlins, M.: 1977,The Use And Abuse Of Biology, Tavistock, London.
Stent, G. S. (ed.): 1978,Morality As A Biological Phenomenon, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Tanner, N. M.: 1981,On Becoming Human, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Thomas, L.: 1986, ‘Biological Moralism’,Biology and Philosophy 1, 316–325.
Trigg, R.: 1982,The Shaping Of Man, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Trigg, R.: 1986, ‘Evolutionary Ethics’,Biology and Philosophy 1, 325–336.
Wilson, E. O.: 1975,Sociobiology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Wilson, E. O.: 1978,On Human Nature, Bantam Books, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Voorzanger, B. No norms and no nature — The moral relevance of evolutionary biology. Biol Philos 2, 253–270 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128832
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128832