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Evolutionary Accounts of Ethics and Moral Behaviour

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EVOLUTIONARY ACCOUNTS OF ETHICS AND MORAL BEHAVIOUR By Viktor BĘhm DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF D. Phil CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY, POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Supervisors: János Kis Loránd Ambrus-Lakatos David Wiggins 2 Acknowledgements Many are my debts for the profound support I received during my work. First of all, my gratitude goes to Professor David Wiggins for the patience and commitment to orient my wandering in the world of philosophy. Had I had any doubts in rejecting the gloomy claims about genuine altruism forwarded by some theorists here examined, he has provided the living proof for the existence of benevolence and sincere generosity. All the many years I have spent as the student of Central European University have been escorted by the strenuous attention and helping willingness of Professors János Kis and Loránd Ambrus-Lakatos: supervisors, teachers and friends. It is due to their continuous effort that I have not been taken away from the rigor and steadiness such an enduring work requires. Professor Kathy Wilkes helped to organize my thoughts in the very beginning of this project, during the long discussions we had the year I spent in Oxford. Heartfelt thanks go for friendship and inspiration to András Szigeti, who helped both by instructive comments, invigorating debates and the burdensome duty of editing and proof-reading. I am thankful to Tamás Meszerics, Richard Dawkins, Anthony O’Hear, Hilary Putnam and Richard Shweder for instructive discussion. I am also grateful for thoughtful comments to participants of the “work in progress” seminars at CEU’s departments of philosophy and political science. Finally, I have to thank my wife Anna for absolutely everything that may call for the thanks of such a product of evolution as I am. 3 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................... 2 CONTENTS............................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER I............................................................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Traditional moral philosophy and evolutionary ethics.................................................................. 5 1.2 Constructed and reconstructed ethics........................................................................................... 6 1.3 Universalizability and relativism ............................................................................................... 10 1.4 Authority and endorsement........................................................................................................ 12 1.5 Objectives: three types of evolutionary theories ......................................................................... 14 1.6 Evolutionary ethics and science................................................................................................. 16 1.7 Prospectus ................................................................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER II.......................................................................................................................................... 27 BASIC CONCEPTS OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY ................................................................................. 27 2.1 Heredity.................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2 Natural selection....................................................................................................................... 31 2.3 Genetic and inclusive fitness, group and kin selection, evolutionary stable strategies.................. 34 2.4 TIT for TAT and reciprocal altruism.......................................................................................... 38 2.5 Emotions................................................................................................................................... 43 2.6 Uniformity................................................................................................................................. 52 CHAPTER III ........................................................................................................................................ 55 ALTRUISM AND MORAL MOTIVATION................................................................................................. 55 3.1 Sheer greed............................................................................................................................... 55 3.2 Psychological altruism.............................................................................................................. 57 3.3 Group selection revisited........................................................................................................... 62 3.4 Cultural evolution ..................................................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER IV ........................................................................................................................................ 70 THE CHALLENGE................................................................................................................................ 70 4.1 Michael Ruse............................................................................................................................. 71 4.2 Robert J. Richards..................................................................................................................... 80 4.3 Rottschaeffer and Martinsen...................................................................................................... 86 4.4 The naturalistic fallacy.............................................................................................................. 92 4.5 Internal debates......................................................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER V........................................................................................................................................ 103 ANSWERS TO THE CHALLENGE......................................................................................................... 103 5.1 The objection from transparency and the epistemic objection................................................... 104 5.2 Complexity.............................................................................................................................. 111 5.3 Hyperselectionism and the genotype-phenotype gap................................................................. 115 5.4 The meme-meme...................................................................................................................... 122 5.5 Consciousness and the by-product argument............................................................................ 128 5.6 Plausibility, just-so-stories and EEA........................................................................................ 133 5.7 Basic troubles ......................................................................................................................... 137 5.8 Problems of explanation in evolutionary ethics ........................................................................ 140 PART II .............................................................................................................................................. 144 CHAPTER VI ...................................................................................................................................... 144 PREDECESSORS OF EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS? KANT AND HUME....................................................... 144 6.1 Why bother?............................................................................................................................ 144 4 6.2 Hume ...................................................................................................................................... 147 6.3 Kant........................................................................................................................................ 156 6.4 Moral philosophy and evolutionary theory............................................................................... 164 6.5 The input of evolutionary theory to the ordinary morality view................................................. 167 CHAPTER VII..................................................................................................................................... 179 CONSTRUCTION OR RECONSTRUCTION AND THE ROLE OF EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE IN MORAL THEORY ........................................................................................................................................... 179 7.1 Coordination........................................................................................................................... 179 7.2 The evolutionary context.......................................................................................................... 180 7.3 Psychology and reduction........................................................................................................ 182 7.4 The status of normative facts
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