Department of Philosophy Fall 2015 Course Offering PHIL4000A – Evolution and Ethics Instructor: Michael Stingl Day/Time: Thursday (3:05 – 5:45 p.m.) Course Description: Are things morally good or bad because we think so, or do we think so because some things really are morally good or bad? Standard accounts of evolutionary ethics are antirealist: while cognitive and emotional moral capacities may have evolved, moral values are not themselves real parts of the environment of any species. Moral capacities incline us to act in certain sorts of ways, but they do not respond to any sort of moral facts that might exist independently of such capacities. In addition to looking at standard approaches to evolutionary ethics, this course will examine a realist alternative according to which moral values like helping others in need are real aspects of the environments of species whose evolutionary development is on what can be called a moral trajectory. While part of the argument between these two general approaches to evolution and ethics will be philosophical, the course will significantly examine relevant empirical work from psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, behavioural economics and history. Prerequisite(s): 3rd year standing Recommended Background: A major in Philosophy, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Anthropology, or Economics Textbooks: 1. James, Scott. Introduction to Evolutionary Ethics (Wiley, 2011). ISBN: 9781405193962 2. Students will be asked to select a book from one of the following: Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, The University of Chicago Press, 2009. Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism and Shame, Basic Books, 2012. Patricia Churchland, Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality, Princeton University Press, 2011. Martin Hoffman, Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice, Cambridge University Press, 2000. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding, Harvard University Press, 2009. Shaun Nichols, Sentimental Rules: On the Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment, Oxford University Press, 2004. Jesse Prinz, The Emotional Construction of Morals, Oxford University Press, 2007. Michael Shermer, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom, Henry Holt & Co., 2015. Peter Singer, The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress, Princeton University Press, 1981, with a new afterword, 2011. Frans de Waal, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society, McClelland & Stewart, 2009. .