Evolved morality
Subtitle: the biology and philosophy of human conscience
By: edited by Frans B.M. de Waal, Patricia Smith Churchland, Telmo Pievani and Stefano Parmigiani
Contributors: International School of Ethology
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9789004263871; 9789004268166
Subjects: Conscience; Behavior evolution; Neuropsychology; Cognitive neuroscience; Altruistic behavior in animals; Evolutionary Ethics; Behavior; Human evolution; Primates
Other titles: Behaviour. Vol. 151, pts. 2-3, 2014.
Description: Morality is often defined in opposition to the natural "instincts," or as a tool to keep those instincts in check. New findings in neuroscience, social psychology, animal behaviour, and anthropology have brought us back to the original Darwinian position that moral behaviour is continuous with the social behavior of animals, and most likely evolved to enhance the cooperativeness of society. In this view, morality is part of human nature rather than its opposite. This interdisciplinary volume debates the origin and working of human morality within the context of science as well as religion and philosophy. Experts from widely different backgrounds speculate how morality may have evolved, how it develops in the child, and what science can tell us about its working and origin. They also discuss how to deal with the age-old facts-versus-values debate, also known as the naturalistic fallacy. The implications of this exchange are enormous, as they may transform cherished views on if and why we are the only moral species.
Notes: "These articles are also published in Behaviour, volume 151, parts 2-3 (February 2014)"--Page [4] of cover.

Pages [1]-[266] also numbered 137-402 from original paging.

Outgrowth of a workshop on the biological roots of morality and ethics held June 17-22, 2012, in Erice, Italy, as part of the International School of Ethology. (Pages [3]-[4])

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: A history of the altruism-morality debate in biology / Oren Harmon; title: The moral consequences of social selection / Christopher Boehm; title: Natural normativity : the 'is' and 'ought' of animal behavior / Frans M.B. de Waal; title: Empiricism and normative ethics : what do the biology and the psychology of morality have to do with ethics? / Owen Flanagan, Aaron Ancell, Stephen Martin and Gordon Steenbergen; title: Human nature and science : a cautionary essay / Simon Blackburn; title: Is a naturalized ethics possible? / Philip Kitcher; title: The origins of moral judgment / Richard Joyce; title: The neurobiological platform for moral values / Patricia S. Churchland; title: The neuroscience of social relations. A comparative-based approach to empathy and to the capacity of evaluating others' action value / Pier F. Ferrari; title: A social cognitive developmental perspective on moral judgment / Larisa Heiphetz and Liane Young; title: Morality, intentionality and intergroup attitudes / Melanie Killen and Michael T. Rizzo; title: Does religion make people moral? / Ara Norenzayan; title: Supernatural beliefs : adaptations for social life or by-products of cognitive adaptations? / Vittorio Girotto, Telmo Pievani and Giorgio Vallortigara.