Is evolution adequate for explaining ethics

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Fatima-Crusader

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Did human morality evolve?, example rapeing a women would mean getting killed by the tribe so we evolved the moral intuition not to
 
Fatima-Crusader said:
Did human morality evolve?, example rapeing a women would mean getting killed by the tribe so we evolved the moral intuition not to
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That’s a simplistic example. But it’s heading in the right direction.

Living alone in the world is a tough gig. Those of our ancestors who found a way to form groups survived longer that those who didn’t. That’s the start point.

If you had a genetic tendency to share food or work and you found yourself in company with someone else who had that tendency then you would end up working together. Two hands are better than one.

If you had a tendency to be selfish and not share, then if you met someone with the same tendencies then you would not form an alliance. If you met someone who did share then you might. But you’d be free loading and eventually you’d end up being rejected by the other person. This is where reciprocal altruism comes in. There is a tendency to help people who help you and reject those who don’t.

The net result is that certain traits evolved which allowed our survival. And living is better than dying so theses traits are therefore termed ‘good’.

That’s the start of the process. It covers many emotions that we experience: fear, pride, cowardice, compassion, honour, justice, bravery, self sacrifice and more. They all allowed groups to form, then tribes, then villages etc.

As societies grew, other pressures came to bear on those evolved tendencies. Leaders emerged either through knowledge or strength and societies became stratfied. Rules were made. Rules were broken. Societies adopted norms that were different to those that enabled the society to form in the first instance.

So all in all, it’s a complex mixture of evolved characteristics and learned behaviour. Sorting the one from the other can be quite an excercise.
 
False reasoning. A story based on false reasoning, The answer to the OP is no.
 
Fatima-Crusader said:
Did human morality evolve?, example rapeing a women would mean getting killed by the tribe so we evolved the moral intuition not to
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I don’t think so.

Even if you remove God from the picture, I think we humans (and a lot - if not most - mammals) are empathetic towards other members of our species, eps members of our pack, herd, tribe, etc.

If you look at child behavior, children can easily get along with anyone and make instant friends. It’s not until start reaching biologic adulthood that they start becoming judgemental of others (and half the time, if not more, it’s rooted in sexual competition or lust for power).

So I think we humans and mammals generally have a built in compassion for our fellow man, but that can been warped or destroyed by fear, lust, greed, etc.
 
Ahhhh… Now we are getting into the deep. What if humans are likely the only beings that have a fuller concept of a God on this planet. Animals to varying degrees might be self-aware. I’m thinking things like Elephants, Whales, Dolphins, and maybe even Birds like Ravens and Parrots. You’d have to be self-aware to even consider the existence of a god. We know ourselves that there are things in this universe that maybe will and remain beyond our understanding.
 
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Because if you commit murder the tribe would excute you so you dont murder them, so we evolved the mutation of moral “intuition”
 
Not to mention you could basically do whatever you want to members of an opposing tribe. Unless of course your chief has a pact with them. Then you might be executed for misbehaving.
 
The claim is that we are genetically directed to act with morality towards others because it benefits our species
 
Humanity tends towards barbarism and exploiting the weak. I don’t call that morality.

Most of the morality that people HERE are familiar with, including yourself, has been HEAVILY influenced by Christianity.

If there was No God and No Catholic Church, I cannot see humanity progressing past the “Law of the Jungle”.
 
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Many of the moral values were created by various groups to help them survive…well, as a group. This explain why some are common among all human groups
-An interdiction on indiscriminately killing members of the in-group. Can you imagine a group that allowed everyone there to kill whomever he/she wants? No, because such group wouldn’t last for long. Now, various groups did and do allow killing inside the group for certain acts but not outside those circumstances.
  • Different types of assault among people of the same group. Again, limits and punishments had to be set for these type of behaviour otherwise everything would turn into revenge, violence, murders and that group would last for a short period of time.
    -The same would be true for theft, destroying other people’s properties or stuff that belonged to everyone and so on.
Other moral values had to be “encouraged” in society because the entire group benefit from them- a certain degree of altruism, industriousness, honesty, a certain degree of respect for the authority (obviously depending a lot on the society) and so on.

Humans trying to find the best way and rules to make life in a social group at least…tolerable.
 
phil19034 said:
It’s not until start reaching biologic adulthood that they start becoming judgemental of others
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I wish that were true.
The kids I went to school with could be plenty judgey.
Wrong clothes, wrong hairstyle, not up on the latest television shows and fads or being funny looking could all get you isolated real fast.
 
I think evolution is adequate for expounding natural virtue (ie the cardinal virtues), but it’s not adequate for explaining things like agape love or forgiveness.

Also, I’m not sure we become more moral as time goes on. Reading history I get the sense that society just flips between one set of virtues and vices to another . But I don’t think we become wiser
 
Fatima-Crusader said:
Did human morality evolve?, example rapeing a women would mean getting killed by the tribe so we evolved the moral intuition not to
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How would you know?
Observation would be one way.
Ok, take a look around you and see if our current culture respects human life. One way to do this is body counts.
We have killed 70 million of our most defenseless human beings in the last 40 or so years.

The answer to your question is no. And the reason morality does not evolve is that the good end of morality is God himself. Human beings evolve in material ways, but our beatitude is unchanging and eternal. The same call to goodness that was present in the garden is the same call to goodness at this moment, namely God, who is the good personified.

Morality is the human evaluation of acts in reference to the objective good.
Or put simply, it is our right reason responding to God’s goodness.
 
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But why should or would the tribe kill a rapist? To play devil’s advocate, why should men care if a woman of their tribe is raped? Not exactly their problem.
 
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