The Origins of Morality

1
The Origins of Morality
2
What is morality?

• Morality is our sense of right and wrong, the
  means by which we guide our behavior.

3
What is ethics?

• Ethics is the study of morality.
• Different ethical theories define morality in
  different ways

4
Where do our morals come from?

• Our morals must come either from something
  divine, supernatural, and absolute, or something
  physical and explainable.

5
Evolution

• Evolutionary theory describes the change in
  species due to selective pressure.
• Human morality could have evolved from basic
  social instincts.

6
Darwinism

• Darwin was a naturalist who voyaged extensively
  cataloguing organisms.
• Based on his observations, he formulated his
  theory of evolution by natural selection.
• It sparked much debate, and the field of
  evolutionary ethics emerged.

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Descent of Man

• The Descent of Man was written by Darwin and
  published in 1871.
• It detailed means by which human beings could
  have evolved.

8
Spencers Evolutionary Ethics

• Spencer believed in directional evolution leading
  to more moral beings.
• He believed that evolutionary progress was
  good.
• Spencer was the chief proponent of Social
  Darwinism during his time.

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Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism is the belief that survival of
  the fittest should apply to society at large.
• The belief is that by rewarding fierce
  competition, the best of society is promoted,
  and the worst weeded out.

10
G. E. Moore

• Moore was a prominent moral philosopher who
  defined the Naturalistic Fallacy and refuted
  naturalistic ethics, such as Spencers
  Evolutionary Ethics.

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The Naturalistic Fallacy

• Good is indefinable except as good itself.
• Equating anything other than good with good is
  committing the Naturalistic Fallacy.

12
Hume and the ought/is problem

• One cannot derive ought from is, because
  empirical facts cannot imply moral judgement.

13
Edward O. Wilson

• A modern scientist and philosopher, Wilson is
  considered the father of Sociobiology.
• Wilson believes that Morality can be understood
  biologically.

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Sociobiology

• Because organisms are biological in nature, their
  behavior can be explained biologically, at least
  in part.
• Human morality, as a behavior of an organism,
  then, is describable biologically.

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Biological Morality

• Morals are experienced through emotions.
• Emotions are caused by chemical reactions in
  glands and brain processes.
• Therefore, our experience of morality is caused
  by our biological structure.

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Selection

• Individual Selection is the classic survival of
  the fittest.
• Group Selection is the tendency of effective
  groups of social organisms to prosper, relative
  to other groups.

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NOW IT'S TIME FOR FUN!!!
18
Culture

• Because of our intelligence, human beings are
  able to form symbols and abstract concepts to
  describe our moral emotions.
• Consequently, we have complicated cultural
  frameworks that describe the particulars of our
  ethics.

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Implications

• Is there no such thing as ought?
• Do good and evil even exist?
• What about free will?

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Conclusion

• Ethics is not scientifically pursuable.
• A biological definition of morality explains why,
  how, is but not ought.