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Comments on the sociobiology of ethics and moralizing
Author(s) -
Campbell Donald T.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830240106
Subject(s) - selfishness , normative , sociobiology , altruism (biology) , competition (biology) , sociology , epistemology , environmental ethics , social psychology , psychology , biology , ecology , philosophy
A scientific mediational normative ethics uses knowledge about the world and man to recommend optimal human behavior for the implementation of assumed ultimate goals, such as human survival under humane conditions. Since the wisdom of evolutionary processes is wisdom about past worlds, both normative biologism and normative sociologism must be rejected. Normative biologism must also be rejected because of the problem of group selection and the genetics of altruism. Where there is genetic competition among the cooperators (as for humans and other vertebrates, but not for the social insects), great limitations are placed on the degree of socially useful self‐sacrificial altruism that biological evolution can produce. Human urban social complexity is a product of social evolution, and has had to counter with inhibitory moral norms the biological selfishness which genetic competition continually selects.