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Baselines for human morality should include species typicality, inheritances, culture, practice, and ecological attachment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2019

Darcia Narvaez Open the ORCID record for Darcia Narvaez [Opens in a new window]
Darcia Narvaez*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. dnarvaez@nd.eduhttps://www3.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/
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Abstract

Empirical studies involve WEIRD (Western, European, industrialized, rich, democratic) but also un-nested (raised outside humanity's evolved nest) and underdeveloped participants. Assessing human moral potential needs to integrate a transdisciplinary approach to understanding species typicality and baselines, relevant evolutionary inheritances beyond genes, assessment of cultures and practices that foster (or not) virtue, and ecological morality. Human moral reason (nous) emerges from all of these.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e163
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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