ASEBL Journal – Volume 13 Issue 1 , January 2018
From the Editors
In line with the mission and goals of the Evolutionary Studies Collaborative , St . Francis College held its third Moral Sense Colloquium on 2 June 2017 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Richard Alexander ’ s The Biology of Moral Systems . The Keynote speaker was legendary biologist Dr . Robert Trivers . The Plenary speaker was biologist and philosopher Dr . David Lahti . There was one morning panel and two afternoon panels on a range of subjects related to the moral sense . Importantly , the conference was truly interdisciplinary and brought together scholars from disciplines as divere as biology , communications , religious studies , philosophy , psychology , including a student panel respondent who is studying English and American literature . The full program is available on the Evolutionary Studies Collaborative page at the St . Francis College site , here .
Although all of the presentations and talks are not represented in this issue , we have tried to provide a good sample . Comments from other conference presenters on the papers are included to help give a flavor of the discussions that took place during the colloquium .
A key debate among some philosophers , natural scientists , and social scientists concerns the origins of morality , and much has been published on the topic . See , for example , the psychological perspective of Dennis Krebs ( 2011 ) and the anthropological perspective of Christopher Boehm ( 2012 ). As Trivers ( 1971 ) notes , praise and blame “ enhance ‘ fitness ’” since these “ select for altruistic motivations , and thus for reliability in others ” ( 694 ). Fitness itself , of course , does not survive ; rather , traits and characteristics that contribute to survival and reproduction persist and evolve . Morality is a behavior , and behaviors evolve . What we call our moral sentiments have equivalents in other species . Take , for instance , empathy , a subject of study by primatologists Jessica Flack and Frans de Waal ( 2002 ). Even before human culture there were early forms of elevating or ostracizing one socially , as seen today across non-human primate species . However , we need the wisdom of philosophers to help us understand biology ’ s implications .
Readers wishing to participate in the conversation should contact editor Gregory F . Tague for the possibility of a guest post on the ASEBL blog .
Sincerely , Gregory F . Tague , Ph . D . ( English ), Editor Clayton Shoppa , Ph . D . ( Philosophy ), Guest Co-Editor
Works Cited
Boehm , Christopher . 2012 . Moral Origins : The Evolution of Virtue , Altruism , and Shame . NY : Basic Books .
Flack , Jessica C . and Frans B . M . de Waal . 2002 . ‘“ Any Animal Whatever ’: Darwinian Building Blocks of Morality in Monkeys and Apes .” Evolutionary Origins of Morality : Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives . Leonard D . Katz , ed . Thorverton , UK : Imprint Academic . 1-29 . Krebs , Dennis L . 2011 . The Origins of Morality : An Evolutionary Account . Oxford : OUP . Trivers , Robert . 1971 . “ The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism .” The Quarterly Review of Biology 46 ( 1 ):
35-57 .
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