Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Aristotle on the Biological Roots of Virtue: The Natural History of Natural Virtue
- 2 The Moral Status of Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy
- 3 From Natural Law to Evolutionary Ethics in Enlightenment French Natural History
- 4 French Evolutionary Ethics during the Third Republic: Jean de Lanessan
- 5 The State and Nature of Unity and Freedom: German Romantic Biology and Ethics
- 6 Darwin's Romantic Biology: The Foundation of His Evolutionary Ethics
- 7 Nietzsche and Darwin
- 8 Evolutionary Ethics in the Twentieth Century: Julian Sorell Huxley and George Gaylord Simpson
- 9 The Laws of Inheritance and the Rules of Morality: Early Geneticists on Evolution and Ethics
- 10 Scientific Responsibility and Political Context: The Case of Genetics under the Swastika
- 11 The Case against Evolutionary Ethics Today
- 12 Biology and Value Theory
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
11 - The Case against Evolutionary Ethics Today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Aristotle on the Biological Roots of Virtue: The Natural History of Natural Virtue
- 2 The Moral Status of Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy
- 3 From Natural Law to Evolutionary Ethics in Enlightenment French Natural History
- 4 French Evolutionary Ethics during the Third Republic: Jean de Lanessan
- 5 The State and Nature of Unity and Freedom: German Romantic Biology and Ethics
- 6 Darwin's Romantic Biology: The Foundation of His Evolutionary Ethics
- 7 Nietzsche and Darwin
- 8 Evolutionary Ethics in the Twentieth Century: Julian Sorell Huxley and George Gaylord Simpson
- 9 The Laws of Inheritance and the Rules of Morality: Early Geneticists on Evolution and Ethics
- 10 Scientific Responsibility and Political Context: The Case of Genetics under the Swastika
- 11 The Case against Evolutionary Ethics Today
- 12 Biology and Value Theory
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Some two thousand three hundred years ago, Plato presented us a classic formulation of an ethical problem that has disconcerted thinkers about morality ever since. In his book The Republic, Plato has Glaucon tell the story of a young shepherd, Gyges, who discovers a ring that enables him to become invisible at will. With the special powers the ring gives him, Gyges proceeds to seduce the queen of his city, murder the king, and seize the throne. Glaucon intends his little parable to point a lesson about human nature. All of us, he suggests, behave morally only because, unlike Gyges, we know that immoral behavior usually will be detected and punished. “There is no one,” he says, “who would have such iron strength of will as to stick to what is right and keep his hands off other people's property. For he would be able to steal from the shops whatever he wanted without fear of detection, to go into any man's house and seduce his wife, to murder or release from prison anyone he felt inclined” (Plato 1955, p. 91).
What Plato has illustrated for us in this story is the ethical problem of egoism: Why, if we can get away with it, shouldn't we pursue our own selfinterest at the expense of any, or even all, other people? Why should we ever behave altruistically, that is, act so as to bring about the good of others, except when we have to do so to get them to help us further our own good?
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- Chapter
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- Biology and the Foundations of Ethics , pp. 276 - 306Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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