Empirically Engaged Evolutionary Ethics

Name: Empirically Engaged Evolutionary Ethics
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

Johan De Smedt · Helen De Cruz

May 2021 · Synthese Library Book 437 · Springer Nature

4.0

2 reviews

Ebook

223

Pages

Ratings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More

About this ebook

A growing body of evidence from the sciences suggests that our moral beliefs have an evolutionary basis. To explain how human morality evolved, some philosophers have called for the study of morality to be naturalized, i.e., to explain it in terms of natural causes by looking at its historical and biological origins. The present literature has focused on the link between evolution and moral realism: if our moral beliefs enhance fitness, does this mean they track moral truths? In spite of the growing empirical evidence, these discussions tend to remain high-level: the mere fact that morality has evolved is often deemed enough to decide questions in normative and meta-ethics. This volume starts from the assumption that the details about the evolution of morality do make a difference, and asks how. It presents original essays by authors from various disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, developmental psychology, and primatology, who write in conversation with neuroscience, sociology, and cognitive psychology.

Ratings and reviews

4.0

2 reviews

About the author

Johan De Smedt has co-authored A natural history of natural theology. The cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion (MIT Press, 2015) and The Challenge of Evolution to Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and published empirically-informed philosophy of science, religion, and art.

Helen De Cruz is holder of the Danforth Chair in the Humanities at Saint Louis University, Missouri, US. Her publications are in empirically-informed philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of religion, social epistemology, and metaphilosophy. She is author of, recently, Religious Disagreement (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and co-editor of Philosophy through Science Fiction Stories. Exploring the Boundaries of the Possible (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Report illegal content