Post #12: Evolutionary Ethics

Using the first article, explain what is evolutionary psychology and how does it apply to the field of ethics?
Evolutionary ethics is the argument that “natural selection has instilled human beings with a moral sense, a disposition to be good.” That is to say that humankind’s morality is not a product of God or reason. If anything at all, our morality is the byproduct of evolution and human beings ability to adapt.

Charles Darwin posited that man and apes have common ancestry. Because of this, Darwin argued that man’s morality “lies in the social instincts.” According to Darwin, man’s propensity to be a social creature harkens back to the earliest days of our “evolutionary history,” stemming from birds. This sociability helped “distinguish between ‘them’ and ‘us’ and aim aggression towards individuals that did not belong to one’s group.” Also, man became reflective, in turn, surmised the golden rule. Darwin’s position was that of “hedonistic utilitarianism” in that he accepted the “greatest-happiness principle as a standard of right and wrong.”

Herbert Spencer posited that man should gain pleasure by avoiding pain. In doing so, man is gratifying his impulses. Therefore, if all man acted to satisfy his impulses, man will be forced to cooperate with other human beings if he wants to continue feeling this way and at the same time, meet others like him. This helps man become cooperative and altruistic. Thus, those who were able to prolong satisfaction moved on in life and those who could not or did not, fell by the wayside. Spencer’s position was that of “hedonistic utilitarianism.”

Next, explain in depth the thesis of the second article and the support offered for it.
Philosopher/Neuroscience Joshua Greene uses an MRI to scan and measure how we come to making our moral judgments. Greene has concluded that “the crux of the matter…lay not in the logic of moral judgments but in the role our emotions play in forming them.” He thinks that “evolutionary origins of morality are easy to imagine in a social species.” In turn, human beings are special in that only “humans turn out to have special neural networks that give them what many cognitive neuroscientists call ‘social intelligence.” The entire study pointed out that their “personal moral decisions tended to simulate certain parts of the brain more than impersonal moral decisions.”

Finally, offer your response to what you read.
I’ve always considered the biography of God, in that, as man evolved, so did God. As man was barely learning to walk on two feet and use tools he depended on the Gods but as he learned to rationalize, he depended on God. The same can be said of ethics. As man evolved, so did his ethical viewpoints.