Evolutionary ethics

In Evolutionary Ethics refers to ethics of the paradigm that moral behavior in humans is starting a special form of social behavior, ( exclusively ) explained and justified the laws of this social behavior through evolutionary mechanisms. The evolutionary ethics is understood as an attempt to justify the ethics of the Darwinian theory of evolution scientifically. It stands in the tradition of sociobiology, but borders aware of social Darwinism from, who wanted the long-lost readout artificial pressure (ie socially authoritarian ) increase again. The evolutionary ethics experienced since the mid- 1970s, a new bloom.

The main message of evolutionary ethics can be described as follows: Man, including all of his mental faculties, was created by Darwinian evolution and hence his moral conduct is subject to evolutionary selection process. Consequently, all moral ideas must be designed so that they have a (survival ) benefit either the individual organism, the gene or meme that generates the behavior, or - bring a group (kin selection) - according to another point of view.

History

Herbert Spencer is one of the most important precursors - considered the evolutionary ethics - if not the founder. The term was first coined in 1893 by Thomas Henry Huxley in his book Evolution and Ethics (English Evolution and Ethics ). Additional representatives of U.S. science historian Robert J. Richards, Edward O. Wilson with his magnum opus Sociobiology: The New Synthesis ( 1975) and Richard Dawkins with The Selfish Gene (1976). The best known representative of a German evolutionary ethics is Gerhard Vollmer.

Philosophical reviews

Because of their exclusive statement claim Evolutionary ethics is counted among the biologistic currents and met with violent opposition.

The Evolutionary ethics presupposes a naturalistic metaethics and is therefore rejected by their opponents, for example, with the argument of the naturalistic fallacy.

A fundamental philosophical criticism of evolutionary ethics wants this reduced to a special form of relativism.

Altruistic behavior, which is often brought as an objection to the evolutionary ethics in position is explained by the evolutionary ethics by an advantage of altruistic behavior for a whole ( related ) group (kin selection). The extent to which this declaration can explain all altruistic behavior in humans, is highly controversial.