Evolutionary biology and the determinants of morality 2

Abstract

As the analysis in the first part of this essay reveals, the Darwinian model of ethical inquiry poses mere explanations of the biological mechanisms of moral behaviour as Ethics. This model basically emphasizes these mechanisms at the expense of the extra-biological factors, such as education, family integration and upbringing, religion, socialisation and culture, which even go beyond biology to determine the very contents of human morality. This second essay continues the reflection on this problem through an exploration of the extra-biological factors and how they effect human moral development—a facet which is only too obvious, but which the evolutionary approach sidelines in its desperate effort to put up purely biological accounts of morality and ethics.

Keywords: Development; Evolutionary; Extra-biological; Factor; Morality;