Higher levels of organization limit reductionistic explanations of behavior.
Understanding how morality as a behavior is explained on multiple levels is valuable for correcting some widespread but misleading popular beliefs about evolution and culture. Many persons portray evolution as nothing more than a fiercely competitive "struggle for existence." They render nature and culture alike as governed by an unqualified "survival of the fittest." Such conclusions are based on the mistaken doctrine of biological determinism, the flawed assumption that all behavior reduces simply to genes (Gould 1981; Lewontin, Rose and Kamin 1984; Lewontin 1993; Rose 1997). Such a view disregards the relevance of learned behaviors at the psychological level and the regulation of behavior by interactions at the social level. Biological determinism fails by not acknowledging the role of emergence, the appearance of new dynamics at higher levels of organization (Holland 1998; Camazine et al 2001). Interactions at these levels may generate new relationships and new properties. They may create a system that functions on its own principles and can modify how component parts act. For example, social punishment limits individual "selfishness." Learning can disarm any genetically based defection. Psychology and sociology, as distinct fields, thus complement standard biology in studyng behavior.
Once one becomes aware of mutualisms between species, reciprocities among individuals within a species, and the potentials of open behavioral programs, the view of natural selection as universally "selfish" is clearly too narrow. Kin selection among Belding ground squirrels or honeybees may inform our understanding of the evolution of morality, but it does not map or determine human behavior. Human psychology establishes its own values. Human society establishes its own laws. Humans are not enslaved by some stereotyped "law of the jungle" (despite the premise of some "reality" television shows!).