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PHIL2623: Moral Psychology
• Ancient Chinese Philosopher Mencius.
• Kao Tzu said, ‘Man's nature is like whirling water. If a breach is made to the
east it will flow to the east. If a breach is made to the west it will flow to
the west. Man's nature is indifferent to good and evil, just as water is
indifferent to east and west.'
• Mencius said, ‘Water, indeed, is indifferent to east and west, but is it
indifferent to high and low? Man's nature is naturally good just as water
flows naturally downward. There is no man without this good nature;
neither is there water that does not flow downward. Now you can strike
water and cause it to splash upward over your forehead, and by damming
it and leading it you can force it uphill. Is this the nature of water? It is the
forced circumstance that makes it do so. Man can be made to do evil, for
his nature can be treated in the same way.’
Morality and the Natural
• Mencius says that morally good feelings are "not drilled
into us from outside. We originally have them with us." (p.
28)
• cf. Hume’s natural sentiment. Rousseau’s universal
sentiment of pity.
• Some behaviours are unlearned, but also not present from
birth.
• Where do these traits come from? (NB Developmental
question plus long term diachronic question)
Darwinian Explanations
• Evolution via natural
selection:
• The original variation
arose (usually via
mutation)
• One variant conferred a
fitness advantage on its
bearers (i.e. enhanced
their ability to survive
and produce viable
offspring),
• The variant was inherited
by the bearers' offspring.
Adaptation
• Heritable variation that differentially affects fitness
will lead to evolution via natural selection.
• Whatever is the product of natural selection is called
an adaptation. NB This is a diachronic explanation on
an evolutionary timescale. It tells us nothing about the
ontogenetic development of the trait.
• Not everything that is adaptive (fitness-enhancing) is
an adaptation. E.g. mobile phone use, immunisation.
• Not everything that is an adaptation is adaptive, e.g.
the human appendix.
The Evolution of Altruism
• “Altruistic” creatures = those which lower their
own fitness while raising the fitness of others.
• Much human moral behaviour seems to be
altruistic. E.g. sharing, assisting, punishing.
• Since morality seems to require altruistic rather
than selfish behaviour, it seem that there will be
natural selection against moral behaviour and for
selfish behaviour.
Standard explanation
• The morally virtuous human being sacrifices his time/energy/life for
the good of the group, and this raises the fitness of the group. Since
fitter groups will do better, altruistic organisms will be selected.
• This process is called group selection.
• Darwin put forward this kind of claim in the Descent of Man, where
he said that cooperative groups of humans would do better than
non-cooperative groups, and thus that helping behaviour might be
favoured by natural selection.
Standard Objection