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    Marsh, Charles 2013. Social Harmony Paradigms and Natural Selection: Darwin, Kropotkin, and the Metatheory of Mutual Aid. Journal of Public Relations Research, Vol. 25, Issue. 5, p. 426.
    Marsh, Charles 2012. Converging on harmony. Public Relations Inquiry, Vol. 1, Issue. 3, p. 313.
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Evolutionary ethics: An idea whose time has come? An overview and an affirmation

  • Peter A. Corning (a1)
Extract

Evolutionary ethics is a subject that has been debated ever since Darwin's day. The basic issue, in a nutshell, is whether or not human ethical systems can be explained — and justified — in terms of evolutionary principles. In recent years there has been an upsurge of publications devoted to this issue, including many new books (as well as a number of books on Darwinism and religion) and countless journal articles. Indeed, an Internet search using the term “evolutionary ethics” yielded 65,400 citations of various kinds. As this outpouring of publications suggests, there has been a great diversity of views on the subject over the years.

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COPYRIGHT: © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 
References
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1.Alexander, Richard, The Biology of Moral Systems (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1987); Masters, Roger and Gruter, Margaret, eds., The Sense of Justice (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992); Nitecki, Matthew and Nitecki, Doris, eds., Evolutionary Ethics (New York: State University of New York Press, 1993); Wilson, James Q., The Moral Sense (New York: The Free Press, 1993); Farber, Paul Lawrence, The Temptations of Evolutionary Ethics (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1994); Wright, Robert, The Moral Animal (New York: Pantheon, 1994); de Waal, Frans, Good Natured (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996); Ridley, Matt, The Origins of Virtue (New York: Viking, 1997); Sober, Elliott and Wilson, David Sloan, Unto Others (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arnhart, Larry, Darwinian Natural Right (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998); Katz, Leonard D., ed., Evolutionary Origins of Morality (Thorverton, UK: Imprint Academic, 2000); Maienschein, Jane and Ruse, Michael, eds., Biology and the Foundation of Ethics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Gould, Stephen Jay, Rocks of Ages (New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1999); Ruse's, MichaelCan a Darwinian Be a Christian? (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Wilson, David Sloan, Darwin's Cathedral (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).
2.Darwin, Charles R., The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (New York: A. L. Burt, 1874 [1871]).
3.Darwin, Charles R., The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1873/1965).
4.McKinney, Henry L., Wallace and Natural Selection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972).
5.Darwin, Charles R., The Descent of Man, pp. 113–142.
6.Ibid., pp. 123–124, 146–147.
7.Ibid., p. 148.
8.Corning, Peter A., “Synergy and the Evolution of Superorganisms: Past, Present, and Future,” Association for Politics and the Life Sciences annual meeting, Montréal, August 11–14, 2002; Wilson, David Sloan and Sober, Elliott, “Reviving the Superorganism,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1989, 136:337–56; Hölldobler, Bert and Wilson, Edward O., Journey to the Ants (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1994); Hölldobler, Bert and Wilson, Edward O., The Ants (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990); Richerson, Peter J. and Boyd, Robert“Complex Societies: The Evolutionary Origins of a Crude Superorganism,” Human Nature, 1999, 10:253–289.
9.Spencer, Herbert, The Principles of Sociology (New York: D. Appleton, 1874–5/1897), vol. II, 1, p. 224.
10.Ibid., vol. I, 1, pp. 14–15.
11.Ibid., vol. I, pp. 435–436.
12.Spencer, Herbert, The Principles of Ethics (London: Williams and Norgate, 1892–93), vol. I, p. 100.
13.Huxley, Thomas Henry, “Evolution and Ethics,” reprinted inEvolutionary Ethics, Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., editors (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), 50–70.
14.Dewey, John, “Evolution and Ethics,” reprinted in Evolutionary Ethics, Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., editors (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp. 95–110.
15.Stephen, Leslie, “Ethics and the Struggle for Existence” reprinted inEvolutionary Ethics, Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., editors (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp. 81–94.
16.Tylor, Edward B., Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Customs (New York: Henry Holt, 1889 [1871]), p. 7.; Keller, Albert G., Societal Evolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931 [1915]); Sumner, William Graham, Essays of William Graham Sumner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934).
17.Rockefeller, John D.quoted inLux, Kenneth, Adam Smith's Mistake (Boston: Shambhala, 1990), p. 148.
18.Carnegie, Andrew, “Wealth,” North American Review, 1889, reprinted inThe Andrew Carnegie Reader, Wall, J. F., editor (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), p. 132.
19.Kropotkin, Pyotr, Mutual Aid, A Factor of Evolution (New York: McClure Phillips & Co., 1902), p. vi.
20.Huxley, Julian S.Huxley, Thomas Henry, Evolution and Ethics: 1893–1943 (London: The Pilot Press, 1947); Dobzhansky, Theodosius, The Biology of Ultimate Concern (New York: New American Library, 1967); Dobzhansky, Theodosius, “Ethics and Values in Biological and Cultural Evolution,” Zygon, 1973, 8 (3/4): 261–281. Dobzhansky, Theodosius, “Is Genetic Diversity Compatible with Human Equality?” Social Biology, 1973, 20:280–288.
21.Wright, Sewall, Evolution and the Genetics of Populations: A Treatise (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968–1978).
22.Mayr, Ernst, Animal Species and Evolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963). Mayr, Also Ernst, Evolution and the Diversity of Life: Selected Essay (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).
23.Wheeler, William Morton, Emergent Evolution and the Social (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927); Wheeler, William Morton, The Insect Societies: Their Origin and Evolution (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1928); Allee, Warder C., Animal Aggregations: A Study in General Sociology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931); Allee, Warder C., Cooperation Among Animals: With Human Implications (New York: Henry Schuman, 1938/1951).
24.Wynne-Edwards, Vero C., “Intergroup Selection in the Evolution of Social Systems,” Nature, 1963, 200:623; Wynne-Edwards, Vero C., Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behaviour (New York: Hafner, 1962).
25.Hamilton, William D., “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior, I,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1964, 7:1–16; Hamilton, William D., “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior, II,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1964, 7:17–52.
26.Williams, George C., Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966), p. 8; cf., Williams, George C., Natural Selection, Domains, Levels and Challenges (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
27.Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 2.
28.Cronin, Helena, The Ant and the Peacock (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 327.
29.Wright, Robert, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (New York: Pantheon, 1994), p. 186.
30.Corning, Peter A., Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics and the Bioeconomics of Evolution (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, in press).
31.John Maynard Smith Eörs Szathmáry, The Major Transitions in Evolution (Oxford: W.H. Freeman Press, 1995), p. 261.
32.Dawkins, Richard, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986), pp. 170, 171.
33.Idem.
34.Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 39–41.
35.Corning, Peter A., “The Co-operative Gene: On the Role of Synergy in Evolution,” Evolutionary Theory, 1996, 11:183–207; Ridley, Mark, The Cooperative Gene: How Mendel's Demon Explains the Evolution of Complex Beings (New York: The Free Press, 2001).
36.Corning, Peter A., Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), Ch. 7; “Synergy Goes to War: An Evolutionary Theory of Collective Violence,” Association for Politics and the Life Sciences annual meeting, Charleston, S.C., October 18–21, 2001.
37.Corning, Peter A., “Fair Shares: Beyond Capitalism and Socialism (The Biological Basis of Social Justice),” Association for Politics and the Life Sciences annual meeting, Montréal, August 11–14, 2002.
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Politics and the Life Sciences
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