Re: [asa] An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong

From: David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com>
Date: Tue Oct 31 2006 - 22:39:33 EST

Pim, I don't think I really disagree with the more modest claims you're
making here. The article, however, said the following:

"The proposal, if true, would have far-reaching consequences. It implies
that parents and teachers are not teaching children the rules of correct
behavior from scratch but are, at best, giving shape to an innate behavior.
And it suggests that religions are not the source of moral codes but,
rather, social enforcers of instinctive moral behavior."

Perhaps the journalist is reading too much into the science, but this seems
much more reductionistic than what you're saying.

On 10/31/06, Pim van Meurs <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I think the problem is that there is no reason to accept that
> morality is attributable solely to evolution. That's the strawman
> which leads you to ask the wrong, or at least irrelevant questions.
> The three points you mention have no relevance to these scientific
> findings. If science finds that there exists a moral grammar then
> that has no impact on any of the three questions you raised.
>
> As Christians we may insist that there exists a foundation for this
> moral code but that's something which is mostly outside scientific
> inquiry.
>
> On Oct 31, 2006, at 7:18 PM, David Opderbeck wrote:
>
> > What would be the problem if science established that there is an
> > evolutionary explanation for morality? I fail to see how.
> >
> > Well, we're getting into that difficult definitional territory of
> > what "evolution" or in this case an "evolutaionary explanation for
> > morality" means. I fail to see how an "evolutionary explanation
> > for morality" that attributes all morality solely to evolution can
> > affirm any of the three points I mentioned. OTOH, if by an
> > "evolutionary explanation for morality" you mean our evolutionary
> > history predisposes us to think certain ways about morality, and
> > nothing more than that, I'd agree with you. The devil is in the
> > details. rather weak claim about predispositions is what
> > evolutionary ethicists generally have in mind.
>

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Received on Tue Oct 31 23:20:59 2006

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