On the Evolutionary Origin of Morality
BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, cilt.12, sa.1, ss.149-164, 2022 (ESCI, TRDizin)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 12 Sayı: 1
- Basım Tarihi: 2022
- Doi Numarası: 10.18491/beytulhikme.1760
- Dergi Adı: BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Index Islamicus, Philosopher's Index, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.149-164
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Morality, naturalism, evolution, animal morality, naturalistic ethics, metaethics, non-anthropocentric ethic, rationality, PUNISHMENT
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
In this study, I will approach morality from a naturalistic perspective and defend that morality is a product of evolutionary processes shared by both human and non-human animals rather than that of human culture. My naturalistic approach is based on simpler components instead of high-level cognitive capabilities such as cognition. Rationality, judgment, and free will are indeed presented as necessary for morality in classical definitions of morality. However, I will put forward that the roots of morality can be understood as the biological disposition in the evolutionary process. Moreover, in this paper, I will propose that morality is not a phenomenon that ought to be restricted to humans. I think morality is not a phenomenon that is exclusively human; rather, morality can be expanded to non-human animals. To defend this claim, I will indicate that morality has a natural content and that this content does not have a structure that can only be justified on a rational basis, but that this normative structure can be established through biological/evolutionary mechanisms and can be explained in this way.