The Evolution of Morality -- Contents/Outline

The Evolution of Morality — Table of Contents/Summary
by Douglas Allchin

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[ in sentence outline form ]
[ Major concepts are identified in bold. Click on any element to advance to that frame. ]

A Biological Approach to Explaining Morality [1]

Moral Outcomes (Behavioral Genetics) [8]

Cooperation and helping behavior are simple evolutionary puzzles. [8]
Organisms may cooperate when each benefits. [9A-B]
Some cases of "costly" helping are apparent only. [10A-B]
Some cases of costly helping are explained by genetic relatedness. [11A-C]
> kin selection, inclusive fitness
Organisms can determine kin relatedness in many ways, sometimes by indirect cues. [12]
Some cases of costly helping are explained, alternatively, by reciprocity. [13A-B]
> reciprocity

Moral Motivation or Intent (Neurophysiology and Psychology) [14]

Darwin proposed the moral sense as an inevitable outcome of four elements: social instinct, memory, language and habit. [15]
Non-human organisms exhibit sympathetic concern for both kin and non-related individuals. [16A-D]
> sympathy
Humans and some other primates exhibit moral sentiments at a very early age. [17]
Moral thinking and feeling have a neurological basis. [18A-B]
Moral behaviors may be learned as part of an open behavioral program. [19]
> open behavioral program, learning, emergence
Cooperation and helping behavior may be intentional. [20]

Moral Systems (Sociality and Communication) [21]

> tragedy of the commons

Organisms may cooperate selectively with reciprocators. [22]
> network reciprocity
Social organisms may enforce cooperation through rewards and punishment. [23A-B]
> strong reciprocity
Organisms may benefit from social information. [24A-B]
> image scoring, indirect reciprocity
Variations in social and cognitive contexts shape helping and cooperative behavior. [25A-B]
Effective communication enhances the social function of moral behavior. [26A-B]
Social interactions may affect individual learning and biological fitness. [27]

Summary and Application [28]

Biologists can explain morality on multiple levels. [28]
> Table 2
Higher levels of organzation limit reductionistic explanations of behavior. [29]
> biological determinism, emergence
Cultural images bias views of human morality in a naturalistic perspective. [30]
Cultural bias may generate error in science, with adverse effects beyond science. [31]
> naturalistic fallacy, naturalizing error
Biologically, humans have multiple moral potentials. [32]

References [33]

*The text presented here has been published in Evolution: Education and Outreach, 2009, SpringerLink DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0167-7.

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