scholarly journals Social Evolution as Moral Truth Tracking in Natural Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filipe Nobre Faria ◽  
André Santos Campos

Morality can be adaptive or maladaptive. From this fact come polarising disputes on the meta-ethical status of moral adaptation. The realist tracking account of morality claims that it is possible to track objective moral truths and that these truths correspond to moral rules that are adaptive. In contrast, evolutionary anti-realism rejects the existence of moral objectivity and thus asserts that adaptive moral rules cannot represent objective moral truths, since those truths do not exist. This article develops a novel evolutionary view of natural law to defend the realist tracking account. It argues that we can identify objective moral truths via cultural group selection and that adaptive moral rules are likely to reflect such truths.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Filipe Nobre Faria ◽  
André Santos Campos

Abstract Morality can be adaptive or maladaptive. From this fact come polarizing disputes on the meta-ethical status of moral adaptation. The realist tracking account of morality claims that it is possible to track objective moral truths and that these truths correspond to moral rules that are adaptive. In contrast, evolutionary anti-realism rejects the existence of moral objectivity and thus asserts that adaptive moral rules cannot represent objective moral truths, since those truths do not exist. This article develops a novel evolutionary view of natural law to defend the realist tracking account. It argues that we can identify objective moral truths through cultural group selection and that adaptive moral rules are likely to reflect such truths.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat Barclay ◽  
Daniel Brian Krupp

AbstractRicherson et al. establish cultural group selection as a plausible force in human social evolution. However, they do not demonstrate its causal precedence for any trait, let alone its “essentialness.” To do so, they must show that a particular group trait was caused by cultural transmission, and directly caused differences in group fitness.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Santana ◽  
Raj Patel ◽  
Shereen Chang ◽  
Michael Weisberg

AbstractThe reproduction of cultural systems in cases where cultural group selection may occur is typically incomplete, with only certain cultural traits being adopted by less successful cultural groups. Why a particular trait and not another is transmitted might not be explained by cultural group selection. We explore this issue through the case of religious syncretism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Chisholm ◽  
David A. Coall ◽  
Leslie Atkinson

AbstractRicherson et al. argue that “cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation.” We believe that cooperation came first, making culture and thus cultural group selection possible. Cooperation and culture began – and begins – in mother–infant interaction.


1995 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Soltis ◽  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Peter J. Richerson

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustin Fuentes ◽  
Marc Kissel

AbstractRicherson et al. provide a much needed roadmap for assessing cultural group selection (CGS) theory and for applying it to understanding variation between contemporary human groups. However, the current proposal lacks connection to relevant evidence from the human evolutionary record and requires a better integration with contemporary evolutionary theory. The article also misapplies the Fst statistic.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Turchin ◽  
Thomas E. Currie

AbstractThe evidence compiled in the target article demonstrates that the assumptions of cultural group selection (CGS) theory are often met, and it is therefore a useful framework for generating plausible hypotheses. However, more can be said about how we can test the predictions of CGS hypotheses against competing explanations using historical, archaeological, and anthropological data.


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