The Science of Good and Evil

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The Science of Good and Evil
A review of Michael Shermers
Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow
the Golden Rule

• Jamie Severtson
• Western Michigan University

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Evolution of Morality

• Morality
• Right and wrong thoughts and behaviors in the
  context of a social group
• Scientific analysis
• More beneficial than philosophical as an
  explanation of moral development
• Removes God from equation
• Not arguing existence, just not relevant to
  scientific approach
• Creates the problem of moral relativity
• Methodological naturalism
• Morals result from laws of nature
• Evolution
• Morals evolved through natural selection on
  individuals and populations
• All animals are trying to survive and cooperation
  is a good strategy

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Evolution of Morality (cont.)

• Morality
• Exclusively human
• Conscious assessment of right and wrong
• Verbal behavior ? rule statements
• Self-aware, self-conscious
• Premorality
• Moral-like behavior observed in our ancestors
• Examples
• Vampire bats share food
• Dophins push the sick to surface to get air
• Species differ to the degree that they
  demonstrate moral behavior
• If humans are .8 to .9 moral, then
• Apes are .6 to .7 moral
• Monkeys are .4 to .5 moral
• Whales and dolphins are .2 to .3 moral

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Evolution of Morality (cont.)

• As humans evolved, culture changed and morality
  evolved
• Increased populations
• Changing social structure
• Division of labor
• Value changes
• Organized religion developed
• Bands 10s-100s of
  individuals
• Tribes 100s 1,000s
  of individuals
• Chiefdoms 1,000s
  10,000s of individuals
• States 10,000s 100,000s of
  inidividuals
• Empires 100,000s 1,000,000s of
  individuals

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Bio-Cultural Evolutionary PryamidA Model of the
Origin and Development of Ethical Behavior
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Immorality

• Problem with God
• How can God be all knowing, and all good, if evil
  exists?
• Gods will
• Myth of pure evil
• Force within us
• Accountability problem (free will?)
• Solution
• Talk about evil as an adjective (e.g., evil act)
  rather than a noun.
• No such thing as pure evil

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Immorality (cont.)

• Myth of pure evil (cont.)
• Justifies immoral acts
• 17th century Europe
• Burning witches
• Spanish Inquisition
• 20th century Muslim Middle East
• September 11th
• Killing Americans will restore peace
• Does not lead us to a real explanation for
  behavior

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Immorality (cont.)

• Although we have evolved into moral creatures,
  anyone can engage in an evil act given the right
  circumstances
• Holocaust
• Not all Germans were Nazis
• Not all Nazis were bad
• Those evil actions were not unique to Nazis
• Milgrim experiments
• Zimbardos Standford prison experiements
• Calling someone evil does not get at the cause of
  behavior

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Immorality (cont.)

• Myth of pure good
• Nobel savages
• Also detrimental to understanding of morality
• Humans are both good and bad

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Political Organization and Frequency of Warfare
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Death Rate from Wartime
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Making Moral ChoicesIn a Determined Universe

• Law
• Insanity Defense
• Free will
• Most people will follow the law
• Few people will not under mental duress
• How can you punish someone for something they did
  not choose to do?
• The Durham Test
• Did the defendant have a mental defect?
• If so, was the defect the reason for the unlawful
  act?

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Making Moral ChoicesIn a Determined Universe

• Free Will
• Quantum indeterminacy
• Random neural firings
• Fuzzy Logic
• Shades of categories unrecognized by law
• Neuroscience
• Science shows that mind and body are not separate
• Brain is wired and rewired
• Genetics and environmental conditions
• Choices feel free even if they arent really
  free

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Making Moral ChoicesIn a Determined Universe

• Free Will (cont.)
• Derived from determinism?
• Incompatible terms
• Left with ignorance
• We can not know all of the causal variables
• Therefore our choices are free because we are
  ignorant

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Godless Goodness

• Is a belief in God necessary to right the wrongs
  of immoral behavior?
• Many nonbelievers behave morally
• Abraham is believed to be an atheist
• Many believers behavior immorally
• Hitler was Catholic
• Without God, would you be more likely to commit
• robbery?
• rape?
• murder?
• Does the presence of God prevent these acts?

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Godless Goodness (cont.)

• How can we be good without god?
• Values (behaviors) are passed down through
  generation to generation
• Behaviors that coincide with cultural norms are
  reinforced
• Behaviors that do not are punished
• Secular ethics may be primitive and flawed, yet
  it is the most precious thing we have.

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Absolute vs. Relative vs. Provisional Ethics

• Absolute
• Inflexible
• Typically derived from religious sources
• Most popular
• Relative
• Flexible
• Derived from social group
• Problems of justifying any action
• Consequential
• An action

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Absolute vs. Relative vs. Provisional Ethics
(cont.)

• Provisional
• Allows room to make better moral choices
• Middle ground between absolutism and relativism
• It would be reasonable for us to offer our
  conditional agreement that an action is moral or
  immoral if the evidence for and the justification
  of the action is overwhelming.

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Skinner on Morals

• the behavior we call moral or just is a product
  of special kinds of social contingencies arranged
  by governments, religions, economic systems, and
  ethical groups (Skinner, 1974, p. 268-269)

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Conclusions

• Many of the authors notions regarding the
  development of morality are in line with behavior
  analytic account
• Evolution of altruism in different species
• Moral behavior is necessary for the survival of
  the individual and the species
• Human verbal behavior makes them unique
• Rule governed behavior
• The creation of God as a governing authority

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Conclusions (cont.)

• Religion adds contingencies to control behavior
• May have been necessary at one point in the
  history of humans, but may not be necessary now
• Consequences for behavior may be due to
• Natural selection
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Shermer appears to uphold the theoretical
  assumptions of contextualism

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Thank you!

• For more information on a theoretical behavior
  analytic account of religion and moral
  development, enjoy the following slides put
  together by Jamie Severtson and Candice Jostad

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Religion and Moral Development

• Avoiding Hellfire and eternal damnation
• By
• Jamie M. Severtson Candice M. Jostad

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the behavior we call moral or just is a product
of special kinds of social contingencies arranged
by governments, religions, economic systems, and
ethical groups (Skinner, 1974, p. 268-269)
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Natural Contingencies

• Do not Support Moral Behavior
• (Support immoral behavior)
• Greed
• Laziness
• Lying
• Lust
• Gluttony
• Wrath
• Pride

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Jamies Mom on the importance of morality

• My answer, without looking at the bible, is that
  morals are important becauseyou gotta be moral,
  because if youre not, its bad. Bad things could
  happen, and you want to be good.

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The Need for Moral Control

• Mediation of future (Skinner, 1974)
• Enjoy the benefits of Group Membership (Baum,
  2005)

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The Need for Moral Control

• good behavior without monitoring (Malott
  Suarez, 2004)
• The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping
  watch on the wicked and the good. Proverbs 1432

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Religion

• contingencies to support moral behavior
• Be altruistic
• Cooperate with Others
• Love thy Neighbor
• Be Kind
• Obey Parents
• Feed the hungry
• Care for the sick
• Be Honest
• Show Mercy
• Forgive Others

Im sorry I said your wig looks fake!
Thats okay.
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Behavioral Theory
Religion Impacts Moral Development through

• Respondent Conditioning
• Pairing
• Operant conditioning
• Direct-Acting Contingencies
• Indirect-Acting Contingencies

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Respondent Conditioning

• Conditioned Reinforcers
• Aversive Stimuli
• Good
• God
• Jesus
• Love
• Right
• Righteous
• Heaven
• Elicit physical reactions

Bad Satan Demons Hate Wrong Evil Hell
CS
CS
US
US
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Stimulus Equivalence
Trained Relations Derived Relations
Good
God
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Stimulus Equivalence
Trained Relations Derived Relations
God
Righteous
Heaven
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Operant Conditioning

• Contingencies
• Direct-Acting
• E.g., Prayer, Bible Study, Crafts
• Reinforce participation
• Punish Inappropriate behavior
• Indirect-Acting (Rules)
• Heaven Hell
• Ultimate Reinforcer
• Ultimate Aversive Condition

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The Big Ten

• How can 10 rules encompass all moral behavior?
• If certain stimuli are in an equivalence class
  with Good or Bad then you would engage in
  Relevant approach or avoidant behavior

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Honor thy Father Mother

• No back-talk
• Clean up your toys
• Dont fight with your brother
• Take out the trash
• Do your homework
• Feed the dog
• Come home before curfew
• Ask before you take the car
• Get good grades
• Go to college
• Get married
• Have babies

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Thou shall not covet your neighbors wife

• How many different rule statements could you make
  based on this one commandment?

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Conclusions

• Religion benefits Society by establishing moral
  behavior for the survival of the culture
• Moral development occurs as a result of the
  social communitys reinforcing practices