Product Description

To what extent is human morality the outcome of a continuous development from motives, emotions and social behaviour found in nonhuman animals? Psychologist Jerome Kagan, primatologist Hans Kummer, philosopher Peter Railton and others discuss the principal paper by primatologists Jessica Flack and Frans de Waal. Cultural anthropologist Christopher Boehm synthesizes social science and biological evidence to support his theory of how our hominid ancestors became moral by establishing purposeful social control over individual behaviour. Can an evolutionary understanding of human nature allow or predict sacrifice for others and ultimate desires for another's good? Philosopher Elliott Sober and evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson argue 'Yes' in their book Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (Harvard, 1998), summarized here. How can fairness to others at one's own expense evolve or survive in competition with selfish strategies? Brian Skyrms (Evolution of the Social Contract, Cambridge, 1996) argues that game theory based on adaptive dynamics must join the social scientist's use of rational choice and classical game theory to explain cooperation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #444066 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
These studies and reflections on the evolution of psychological traits and the capacities for moral judgment-distinct if related topics-are a welcome contribution. Thoughtful and informative, they provide a good basis for appreciating what has been achieved, and what the prospects might be, in a domain of inquiry that is of fundamental importance for understanding of our essential nature

Marc Hauser, Harvard University
What would happen at a fictional dinner with the likes of Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, David Hume, and Friedrich Nietzsche debating and revising their views in the light of today's science? Hard to say, perhaps, but one might well imagine that it would be great fun to listen in. Forget fiction. Pick up Evolutionary Origins of Morality and find out how moral psychology is being picked apart by evolutionists. The concise essays and critical exchanges are great fun-and a feast for the mind

Biology and Philosophy
"The papers are without exception excellent."