| Colloquium paper: the difference of being human: morality. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 20445091 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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In The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, published in 1871, Charles Darwin wrote: "I fully ... subscribe to the judgment of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animals the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important." I raise the question of whether morality is biologically or culturally determined. The question of whether the moral sense is biologically determined may refer either to the capacity for ethics (i.e., the proclivity to judge human actions as either right or wrong), or to the moral norms accepted by human beings for guiding their actions. I propose that the capacity for ethics is a necessary attribute of human nature, whereas moral codes are products of cultural evolution. Humans have a moral sense because their biological makeup determines the presence of three necessary conditions for ethical behavior: (i) the ability to anticipate the consequences of one's own actions; (ii) the ability to make value judgments; and (iii) the ability to choose between alternative courses of action. Ethical behavior came about in evolution not because it is adaptive in itself but as a necessary consequence of man's eminent intellectual abilities, which are an attribute directly promoted by natural selection. That is, morality evolved as an exaptation, not as an adaptation. Moral codes, however, are outcomes of cultural evolution, which accounts for the diversity of cultural norms among populations and for their evolution through time. |
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Authors:
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Francisco J Ayala |
Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article Date: 2010-05-05 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Volume: 107 Suppl 2 ISSN: 1091-6490 ISO Abbreviation: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Publication Date: 2010 May |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-05-12 Completed Date: 2010-06-08 Revised Date: 2011-07-20 |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 7505876 Medline TA: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 9015-22 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. fjayala@uci.edu |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Adaptation, Psychological Biological Evolution* Cultural Characteristics Culture Ethics Humans Models, Biological Morals* Species Specificity |
| Comments/Corrections | |
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