The Origins of Morality - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 20
About This Presentation
Title:

The Origins of Morality

Description:

Our morals must come either from something divine, supernatural, and absolute, ... It sparked much debate, and the field of evolutionary ethics emerged. Descent of Man ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:145
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 21
Provided by: hsRiverd
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Origins of Morality


1
The Origins of Morality
2
What is morality?
  • Morality is our sense of right and wrong, the
    means by which we guide our behavior.

3
What is ethics?
  • Ethics is the study of morality.
  • Different ethical theories define morality in
    different ways

4
Where do our morals come from?
  • Our morals must come either from something
    divine, supernatural, and absolute, or something
    physical and explainable.

5
Evolution
  • Evolutionary theory describes the change in
    species due to selective pressure.
  • Human morality could have evolved from basic
    social instincts.

6
Darwinism
  • Darwin was a naturalist who voyaged extensively
    cataloguing organisms.
  • Based on his observations, he formulated his
    theory of evolution by natural selection.
  • It sparked much debate, and the field of
    evolutionary ethics emerged.

7
Descent of Man
  • The Descent of Man was written by Darwin and
    published in 1871.
  • It detailed means by which human beings could
    have evolved.

8
Spencers Evolutionary Ethics
  • Spencer believed in directional evolution leading
    to more moral beings.
  • He believed that evolutionary progress was
    good.
  • Spencer was the chief proponent of Social
    Darwinism during his time.

9
Social Darwinism
  • Social Darwinism is the belief that survival of
    the fittest should apply to society at large.
  • The belief is that by rewarding fierce
    competition, the best of society is promoted,
    and the worst weeded out.

10
G. E. Moore
  • Moore was a prominent moral philosopher who
    defined the Naturalistic Fallacy and refuted
    naturalistic ethics, such as Spencers
    Evolutionary Ethics.

11
The Naturalistic Fallacy
  • Good is indefinable except as good itself.
  • Equating anything other than good with good is
    committing the Naturalistic Fallacy.

12
Hume and the ought/is problem
  • One cannot derive ought from is, because
    empirical facts cannot imply moral judgement.

13
Edward O. Wilson
  • A modern scientist and philosopher, Wilson is
    considered the father of Sociobiology.
  • Wilson believes that Morality can be understood
    biologically.

14
Sociobiology
  • Because organisms are biological in nature, their
    behavior can be explained biologically, at least
    in part.
  • Human morality, as a behavior of an organism,
    then, is describable biologically.

15
Biological Morality
  • Morals are experienced through emotions.
  • Emotions are caused by chemical reactions in
    glands and brain processes.
  • Therefore, our experience of morality is caused
    by our biological structure.

16
Selection
  • Individual Selection is the classic survival of
    the fittest.
  • Group Selection is the tendency of effective
    groups of social organisms to prosper, relative
    to other groups.

17
NOW IT'S TIME FOR FUN!!!
18
Culture
  • Because of our intelligence, human beings are
    able to form symbols and abstract concepts to
    describe our moral emotions.
  • Consequently, we have complicated cultural
    frameworks that describe the particulars of our
    ethics.

19
Implications
  • Is there no such thing as ought?
  • Do good and evil even exist?
  • What about free will?

20
Conclusion
  • Ethics is not scientifically pursuable.
  • A biological definition of morality explains why,
    how, is but not ought.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com