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Moral Monkey Business

Scientists say morality grew out of biology, not philosophy

By NICHOLAS WADE The New York Times

Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days.

Biologists argue that these and other social behaviors are the precursors of human morality. They further believe that if morality grew out of behavioural rules shaped by evolution, it is for biologists, not philosophers or theologians, to say what these rules are.

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I'd call it ethics rather than morals (a friend of mine said ethics is what's right, and morals are what's religious) - but whatever. Yes, of course, the "building blocks" are in "simpler" lifeforms. Everything starts somewhere and you don't build skyscrapers without learning how to build simpler buildings. I wish I could remember the name of the woman who did/does the research with orangutans - Fossey did gorillas and Goodall did chimps, but I can never remember the 3rd. She and her husband ended up running a nursery and "release" program for orphan orangs confiscated from blackmarketeers at the same time their own son was a baby/toddler. She said that apes develop physically much faster than humans (about twice as fast) but their mental and emotional developement seems to max out at the same stage as a human 2 to 3 year old.

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:I'd call it ethics rather than morals (a friend of mine said ethics is what's right, and morals are what's religious) - but whatever.

DAR
I'll let Sir Arther C. Clarke respond:

"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all. It's this: "Don't do unto anybody else what you wouldn't like to be done to you." It seems to me that that's all there is to it."

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They further believe that if morality grew out of behavioural rules shaped by evolution, it is for biologists, not philosophers or theologians, to say what these rules are.

That doesn't follow. Dawkins discusses this in "The Selfish Gene." The fact that a behavioral tendency evolved just means that certain genes were favored, not that it is moral for individuals (gene-carrying meat.) Furthermore, environmental (social, technical) change often makes evolved genes, organs, or behaviors counterproductive to survival. E.g. The tendency of group solidarity that aided the survival in the inbred super-families of hunter-gatherers may enable exploitation by rulers and promote war in the age of the nation-state.