2007-08-06

Our moral instincts?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

Before I write anything more myself on this I have to link to two discussions of some of the research:

As usual, my fav radio station has a program transcript of its All in the Mind program:

Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality

It’s blurb reads:

Incest, infanticide, honour killings – different cultures have different rules of justice. But are we all born with a moral instinct – an innate ability to judge what is right and wrong? Could morality be like language – a universal, unconscious grammar common to all human cultures? Eminent evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser and philosopher Richard Joyce take on these controversial questions in impressive new tomes, and to critical acclaim. But could their evolutionary arguments undermine the social authority of morality?

My note: Hauser’s explanation for “moral instincts” may be debatable, but the results of the studies and tests do point to something real that is there and requiring explanation, without divinities or little angels and devils.

It’s guests are:

Marc Hauser
Harvard College Professor
Professor of Psychology, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology and Biological Anthropology
Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Education and Program in Neurosciences
Director, Cognitive Evolution Lab
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/LPPI.html

Richard Joyce
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
http://philrsss.anu.edu.au/people-defaults/rjoyce/index.php3

Not part of the radio program, but also worth checking out an interview with Marc Hauser on American Scientist Online.

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