Can Darwinism account for morality?
June 18, 2015 at 11:23 am
(This post was last modified: June 18, 2015 at 11:25 am by Aaran.)
Hi,
I've been reading the depressingly interminable Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky for some time now. One of the ideas that keeps returning is that "If god is dead, then everything is permissible".
The simple fact that the godless are just as capable of demonstrating empathy and goodness as the devout turns that notion on its head, but the argument is often made that the yardstick with which modern societies quantify 'goodness' is inherited from the religious worldview. An accretion from the thousands of years of religious ascendancy.
This led me to wonder whether there was any scientific explanation for the development of the moral compass in humans. Could it have been that social cohesion was advantageous to our distant ancestors, and therefore a distinguishing factor in natural selection? Social cohesion is after all, only possible if the individuals who constitute a population are mindful of the well-being of those around them.
I'm not hugely familiar with Darwin. My hope is that somebody who can claim otherwise might shed some light on this issue, that is, the emergence of morality - from an evolutionary perspective.
Thank you.
I've been reading the depressingly interminable Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky for some time now. One of the ideas that keeps returning is that "If god is dead, then everything is permissible".
The simple fact that the godless are just as capable of demonstrating empathy and goodness as the devout turns that notion on its head, but the argument is often made that the yardstick with which modern societies quantify 'goodness' is inherited from the religious worldview. An accretion from the thousands of years of religious ascendancy.
This led me to wonder whether there was any scientific explanation for the development of the moral compass in humans. Could it have been that social cohesion was advantageous to our distant ancestors, and therefore a distinguishing factor in natural selection? Social cohesion is after all, only possible if the individuals who constitute a population are mindful of the well-being of those around them.
I'm not hugely familiar with Darwin. My hope is that somebody who can claim otherwise might shed some light on this issue, that is, the emergence of morality - from an evolutionary perspective.
Thank you.
