The "Evolution of Morality" website aims to profile morality/moral behavior in an evolutionary context and to provide support for teaching about it in a standard introductory biology course. There are four main sections:
- "Why?" [PDF]
- Scientific, humanistic and political reasons why this topic is essential for every introductory biology course, whether in high school or college.
— Go online for an analysis of current textbooks.
- Scientific Overview
- Written in textbook style, as a prospective supplement for current texts (included in this download). It has five main sections:
- A Biological Approach to Morality
- Moral Outcomes (Behavioral Genetics)
- Moral Motive or Intent (Psychology & Neurophysiology)
- Moral Systems (Sociality & Communication)
- Applying Biological Perspectives
Begin Illustrated Text Presentation
Go to complete text || Image-only Presentation
Print text [PDF]
- Books
- Brief essay review of over 2 dozen books available to non-scientists. [PDF]
- Classroom Resources
- Images! Video clips! Websites! --the stuff to help visualize and render all the concepts and content for students.— plus teaching tips for the classroom.
Go to ImageBank, included in download.
Open supplemental essays [PDF]:
- "Was Darwin a Social Darwinist?"
- explores Darwin's views on the morality and its evolutionary origins
- "Social Un-Darwinism"
- explores the origin of the concept inaptly named term "Social Darwinism," touching on Hobbes, Malthus and Spencer
- "A More Fitting Analogy"
- explores the metaphoric meanings in the phrase "survival of the fittest" — and some less misleading alternatives
- "Naturalizing as an Error-Type in Biology"
- explores how we can inscribe cultural biases into scientific interpretations of nature, for example turning the "normal" into the "natural"; addresses the concepts of male and female, developmental "monsters," competition as integral to natural selection, and "laws" of nature.
- "Why We Need to Teach the Evolution of Morality"
- Why, indeed? ...for intellectual, cultural, political and historical reasons.
- "Books on the Evolution of Morality"
- a brief survey for teachers
- "Teaching Strategies"
- guidance for the initiate
© Copyright 2009 by Douglas Allchin. All material may be freely used in non-profit contexts for educational purposes. Editing of text for personal institutional use is permitted if original author and source is attributed. See ImageBank for image credits.
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