Evolutionary naturalism and the objectivity of morality

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 8 - Trang 47-60 - 1993
John Collier1, Michael Stingl2
1History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
2Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada

Tóm tắt

We propose an objective and justifiable ethics that is contingent on the truth of evolutionary theory. We do not argue for the truth of this position, which depends on the empirical question of whether moral functions form a natural class, but for its cogency and possibility. The position we propose combines the advantages of Kantian objectivity with the explanatory and motivational advantages of moral naturalism. It avoids problems with the epistemological inaccessibility of transcendent values, while avoiding the relativism or subjectivism often associated with moral naturalism. Our position emerges out of criticisms of the contemporary sociobiological views of morality found in the writings of Richard Alexander, Michael Ruse, and Robert Richards.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Alexander, Richard: 1979,Darwinism and Human Affairs, University of Washington Press, Seattle. Alexander, Richard: 1987,The Biological Basis of Morality, Aldine de Gruyter, New York. Ball, Stephen W: 1988, ‘Reductionism in Ethics and Science: A Contemporary Look at G.E. Moore's Open-Question Argument’,American Philosophical Quarterly 25, 197–212. Collier, J.D.: 1991, ‘Critical Notice of Richard Alexander,The Biology of Moral Systems’,Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21, 73–88. Harman, Gilbert: 1977,The Nature of Morality, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Gibbard, Allan: 1990, ‘Norms, Discussion, and Ritual: Evolutionary Puzzles’,Ethics 100, 787–802. Kitcher, Philip: 1985,Vaulting Ambition, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Mackie, J.L.: 1977,Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. Mackie, J.L.: 1980,Hume's Moral Theory, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Matthen, Mohan: 1988, ‘Biological Functions and Perceptual Content’,Journal of Philosophy 85, 5–27. Railton, Peter: 1986, ‘Moral Realism’,The Philosophical Review XCV, 163–207. Rawls, John: 1971,A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Richards, Robert: 1986, ‘A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics’,Biology and Philosophy 1, 265–293. Richards, Robert: 1987,Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behaviour, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Rosenberg, Alexander: 1991, ‘The Biological Justification of Ethics: A Best-Case Scenario’,Social Philosophy and Policy 8, 86–101. Rottschaeffer, William A. and David Martinsen: 1990, ‘Really Taking Darwin Seriously: An Alternative to Michael Ruse's Darwinian Metaethics’,Biology and Philosophy 5, 149–174. Ruse, Michael, 1984, ‘The Morality of the Gene’,Monist 67, 176–199. Ruse, Michael: 1986,Taking Darwin Seriously, Blackwell, London. 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 E.O. Wilson: 1986, ‘Moral Philosophy as Applied Science’,Philosophy 61, 173–192.