- There is a debate around how science and evolution relate to philosophical concepts like ethics and morality. An evolutionary perspective can potentially contribute to philosophical debates on topics like personhood and the natural/social distinction. - Skepticism about the relationship between science and ethics is considered unpersuasive by some. Science may help explain the origins and adaptations of moral attitudes and rules, but success cognitivism still allows for objective moral truths. - Evolutionary explanations need not undermine ethics, and can help reject morally problematic beliefs by explaining their adaptive origins while still showing why they are wrong based on normative ethical reasoning. Science aims to address urgent issues and is not inherently threatening to other fields like ethics and feminism.

1. Paula Casal
ETHICS & EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE

2. He who understands baboon
would do more towards
metaphysics than Locke.”
CHARLES DARWIN (1838)
And what should they know
of England who only England
know?”
RUDYARD KIPLING (1892)

3. Metaethics
Normative ethics
Applied ethics
medical, animal, etc.
ETHICS: prudence & morality
Political philosophy
Distributive justice
Public policy

4. MAJOR SIMPLIFICATIONS AHEAD
Don’t worry about slides with long lists:
Their point is: “the list is long”

5. Non-person humans
Non-human persons

6. Homo sapiens’ DNA? Human
Intelligence, self-awareness …? Person

7. Intelligence, self-
awareness & mental
contiguity
“a thinking intelligent being
that has reason and
reflection and can
consider itself as itself
the same thinking thing
in different times”
JOHN LOCKE
An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1690)
Ch. XXVII, Identity and Diversity
Sec 9. Personal identity

8. 1. Minimal intelligence
2. Self-awareness
3. Self-control
4. Sense of time
5. “ of the future
6. “ of the past
7. Capability to relate to others
8. Concern for others
9. Communication
10. Control of existence
11. Curiosity
12. Change and changeability
13. Balance of rationality and feeling
14. Idiosyncrasy
15. Neo-cortical function
J. Fletcher, “Indicators of Humanhood”,J. Walter & T. Shannon, Quality of
Life, (NY: Paulist Press, 1990)

9. Can you be the same person from conception if twinning
can happen 2 weeks later?

10. Gallup test

12. COGNITIVE CAPACITIES
Abstraction, maths,
Understanding/use/invention
of words
Search/use/manufacture of
tools and medicines
Curiosity, manual dexterity,
Aesthetic appreciation
(sunsets, music, cuisine…)
Sense of humor
Capacity to plan multiple
steps and hope
Long-term emotional memory
Theory of mind

13. MORAL CAPACITIES
Compassion, altruism, food sharing with
young/old/sick, adoption, consolation,
intra and interspecies empathy
Sense of death, support after death,
frustration and hope
Friendship, loyalty, cooperation, reciprocity
Reconciliation initiated by winner, loser or
third party
Punishment and scolding for breaking rules o
harming the group, submissive reaction to
scolding
2nd order preferences controlling 1st order
preferences
Stability of egalitarian distributions,
preference for impartial arbitration, sense
of abuse/ excessive punishment,
proportionality in retaliation, etc.).
Oops
sorry

16. Female tool use

17. Bonobo
sharpening,
chimp
termite-ing
orang-utan
fishing,
gorilla
measuring
depth

19. large bodies & groups
empathy
spindle neurons
death rituals
mirror neurons
inter-species altruism
tool use
long term e. memory
linguistic abitility
singleton pregnancies
longevity
number of neurons
Extreme K-reproduction Bottlenose 12 months, orcas 18
Mammalian persons

21. Longevity makes large maternal investments worthwhile
22 months

22. Orang 6
LGorila 5
MGori 4
Bonobo 4
Chimp 5
Elephant 5
Dolphin 3

23. Empathy, mind reading, motherese

25. Gorillas
.
Playing games with rules…

27. Grief, death rituals

28. Interspecies
empathy

29. SUMMARY
• There can be a scientific contribution to a
philosophical debate; eg about abortion.
• Philosophical concepts like “personhood”
may contribute to a scientific enquiry.

30. Metaethics
Normative ethics
Applied: medical
environmental, animal
ETHICS: prudence & morality
Political philosophy
Distributive justice
Public policy

31. Hobbes Kropotkin Marx
wolves cooperators no nature

32. Skeptics: science is biased and dispensable.

33. Social inequalities/disadvantages are caused by
social and political structures, which are, eg. racist or
sexist. They are social products or consequences of
wrongdoing.
Justice requires redressing them.
Natural inequalities/disadvantages are matters of
brute luck, not social products, not the product of
injustice.
Regretable but not unjust. Redressing them is not
required or not urgent.

34. Gibbon
Orang
Gorilla
Human
Chimp
Bonobo

35. Monogamy and dimorphism

36. Major sexual dimorphism

37. SUMMARY
• Skepticism is unpersuasive
• An evolutionary perspective can make a
contribution to a philosophical debate; eg.
on the natural/social distinction.

38. Metaethics
Normative ethics
Applied: medical
environmental, animal
ETHICS: prudence & morality
Political philosophy
Distributive justice
Public policy

39. Are moral claims beliefs that aspire to truth?
Yes! No!
Cognitivist Non cognitivist
Emotivists: Hume
Prescriptivist: Hare
Can they approach it?
Sometimes! Never!
Success theorists Error theorists
J.L. Mackie
R. Joyce S. Street

40. Adaptation
physiological behavioral
inherited (instinct) learned (culture)
Effects of evolution
Emotional and intellectual useful norms and
capacities nec + suf prohibitions
for moral conduct (incest, bestiality…)

41. Rules of cooperation
Social division of labour
Jus ad bellum & in bello
Good Samaritan laws…

42. Property rules, begging and
sharing rules…

43. Rules for construction-ownership, first
occupancy, crying wolf, antipedophilia

44. Is ethics species-dependent
just like aesthetics ?

45. Ache, Paraguay 40-50 Machiguenga, Perú 15Aché, Paraguay offer
40+ in ultimatum game
More cooperative less

46. Moral attitudes have evolved because they were
adaptive.
Specific rules also evolved because they were
adaptive.
So evolutionary debunking explanations of moral
norms could be aided with examples from
biology, illustrating
-The argument from diversity
-The argument from pure functionality

47. But success cognitivism may survive.
It is consistent with context-dependency and so
diversity is not decisive.
Arguably we can have adequate reasons to retain
certain beliefs, and place the debunking at the
normative, rather than the metaethical level;
eg.we can explain why racism, nepotism and
homophobia are wrong, and have an evolutionary
debunking explanation of their origin. Our
rejection stands on an even more solid ground.

48. Summary: science is
not threatening to ethics,
or to feminism, and saves us from
investing in the wrong assumptions.
It is essential to address what matters
most urgently, such as climate ethics