The expanding circle: Ethics, evolution, and moral progress

The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

Volumn , Issue , 2011, Pages

  Singer, Peter ^a,b  

^a PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

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References (82)

1. The opening quote is from p. xiii of Mary Midgley, Beast and Man (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978).
2. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. The definition of sociobiology appears on p. 595.
3. The description of stotting comes from R. D. Estes and J. Goddard, "Prey Selection and Hunting Behavior of the African Wild Dog," Journal of Wildlife Management, 31 (1) pp., 52-70.
4. It is quoted by Wilson on p. 124 of Sociobiology. Sources for the further examples of altruism can also be found in Sociobiology, especially pp. 122-9, 475,495.
5. On wolves, see Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon's Ring (London: Methuen, 1964; New York: T. Y. Crowell, 1952), pp. 186-9.
6. An example of the erroneous explanation of altruism in terms of the survival of the species is to be found in Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (first published, 1902; republished London: Allen Lane, 1972), pp. 81-2,246.
7. That differences in the behavior of zebras and wildebeest are best explained by kin selection is suggested by David Barash, Sociobiology and Behavior (New York: Elsevier, 1977), p. 99.
8. The fullest account of langur behavior is Sarah Hrdy, The Langurs of Abu (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977);
9. for similar behavior among lions, see G. B. Schaller, The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972)
10. B. C. R. Bertram, "Kin Selection in Lions and in Evolution," in P. P. Bateson and R. A. Hinde (eds.), Growing Points in Ethology (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
11. Robert Trivers first used the model of rescuing a drowning person in his seminal article, "The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism," The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46 (1971), pp. 35-57.
12. On food-sharing in unrelated animals, see B. C. R. Bertram, "Living in Groups: Predators and Prey," in J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies (eds.), Behavioral Ecology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1972), p. 92.
13. The discussion of "cheats" and "grudgers" is taken from Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976).
14. The argument for a form of group selection used here derives from J. L. Mackie, "The Law of the Jungle," Philosophy, 53 (1978), pp. 455-64.
15. Wilson suggests that "genetic drift" of the sort that would explain a group tendency toward altruism is "entirely feasible" in isolated groups; see Sociobiology, p. 121.
16. Hobbes's claim that war is the natural state of mankind comes from Ch. 13 of his Leviathan; Garrett Hardin's assertion that the Ik are an incarnation of Hobbes's natural man is in The Limits of Altruism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977), pp. 130-1.
17. For Colin Turnbull's own claim that the Ik dispensed with values, see The Mountain People (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), pp. 289-90, 294.
18. Trenchant criticism of The Mountain People appeared in Current Anthropology, 15 (1974), pp. 99-103, and 16 (1975), pp. 343-58.
19. On the preservation of values in the death camps, see Terrence Des Pres, The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), especially p. 142.
20. Wilson's remark on differences among human societies occurs in On Human Nature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), p. 48.
21. For Westermarck's version of the order of duties of benevolence, see The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (London: Macmillan, 1908), Ch. 23.
22. Marshall Sahlins's view is quoted from The Use and Abuse of Biology (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1976), p. 18.
23. Plato advocates communal living in Republic, V, 464; Talmon's description of the actual working of the kibbutzim in Israel comes from pp. 3-34 of Family and Community in the Kibbutz (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972).
24. Westermarck's comment on reciprocity is from The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol. II, p. 155;
25. Gouldner's from "The Norm of Reciprocity," American Sociological Review, 25 (1960), p. 171.
26. Robert Trivers's explanation of our preference for altruistic motivation is in 'The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism," The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46 (1971), pp. 48-9; he also provides references to the psychological data on the effect of altruism in eliciting altruistic behavior from others. The review of the literature quoted is D. Krebs, "Altruism-An Examination of the Concept and a Review of the Literature," Psychological Bulletin, 73, pp. 258-302.
27. For a survey of data on loyalty, see Westermarck's The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol II, p. 169. Cicero's paen to loyalty is in de Officiis, I, 17, par. 57.
28. The opening quotation from Einstein is from p. 114 of Out of My Later Years (New York: Philosophical Library, 1950). The contrasting view is taken from On Human Nature, p. 5.
29. Edward Wilson's discussion of the biology of sex is in On Human Nature, Ch. 6.
30. Darwin's letter (to Charles Lyell) has been published in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin (London: Murray, 1887), Vol. 2, p. 262. lowe this reference to Robert Bannister, Social Darwinism: Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979), p. 14.
31. Darwin's warning against the use of "higher" and "lower" is noted in More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by F. Darwin and A. C. Seward (London: Murray, 1903), Vol. 1, p. 114n; see also the letter to J. D. Hooker (December 30, 1858). T. H. Huxley's lecture "Evolution and Ethics" has been reprinted in J. S. and T. H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics (London: Pilot Press, 1947). The passage quoted is on p. 82.
32. The reference to "ethical premises inherent in man's biological nature" is on p. 5 of On Human Nature.
33. Rawls's ethical theory is presented in his book, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972); see Sec. 11 for a summary statement of Rawls's views. Wilson's misunderstanding of Rawls's principle of equality is on p. 5 of On Human Nature.
34. Kant's insistence on never lying is the subject of his essay "On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives," which is reprinted in T. Abbott's Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909).
35. Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia was published by Basic Books (New York, 1974).
36. The claim that the common Western view of the sanctity of human life is based on Judeo-Christian doctrines, and cannot survive their rejection, is in my Practical Ethics (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1979), Ch.4.
37. David Hume's observation on the distinction between "is" and "ought" occurs at the end of Section 1 of Part 1 of Book III of his A Treatise on Human Nature.
38. The passage quoted is on p. 197 of On Human Nature.
39. Kant's statement that what we ought to do is entirely separate from what we actually do is in the opening passage of the second section of his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals.
40. The second quotation is from p. 38 of Plato's Apology, translated by Benjamin Jowett.
41. The account of Hobbes's discovery of Euclid comes from John Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. A. Clark (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1898), Vol. 1, p. 332.
42. The passage from Hume is quoted from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Sec. IX, Pt. 1.
43. Socrates questioning the conventional conception of justice is the subject of the opening pages of Plato's Republic.
44. The awareness of the Greeks of the diversity of customs in different countries is discussed by K. J. Dover in Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 75, 86-7.
45. See L. Kohlberg and R. Kramer, "Continuities and Discontinuities in Childhood and Adult Moral Development," Human Development, 12, pp. 93-120 (1969).
46. For R. M. Hare's discussion of universalizability, see his Freedom and Reason (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), and for a more recent statement, "Ethical Theory and Utilitarianism," in H. D. Lewis (ed.), Contemporary British Philosophy, fourth series (London: Allen & Unwin, 1976). C. I. Lewis's idea of imagining oneself living the lives of each of those affected by our decision is on p. 547 of An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1946). My own discussion owes much to Hare.
47. J. L. Mackie's point about the queerness of objective values is taken from Ch. 1, Sec. 9, of his Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977).
48. The Hebrew rule against enslaving fellow Hebrews is from Leviticus 25:39-46.
49. The Greek inscription is quoted from Kenneth Dover, Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle, p. 280. Plato's suggested advance on this morality is in Republic, V, 469-71. See also Aristotle's Politics, 1,6, and for many examples from other cultures, Westermarck's The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol. I, pp.331-3.
50. On laws of inheritance by foreigners, see Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol. II, p.49.
51. Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma was published by Harper & Bros., New York, in 1944. The passages quoted are from Appendix 1.
52. The quotation from Marx is in The German Ideology (New York: International Publishers, 1966), pp. 40-1.
53. On the waste of grain involved in Western meat-based diets, see Francis Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet (New York: Ballantine, 1971). Animal Liberation was published by The New York Review in 1975 and reissued by Avon Books, New York, in 1977.
54. Albert Schweitzer's views on reverence for life, originally published in his Civilisation and Ethics (London: A. C. Black, 1929), have been reprinted in Tom Regan and Peter Singer (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976), pp. 133-8.
55. Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac was published in 1949 by Oxford University Press, New York. The passage quoted is from pp. 201-3.
56. Oscar Wilde's remark from "The Critic as Artist" is in his Intentions (London: Methuen, 1909), p. 182.
57. Hume wrote that reason is the slave of the passions, in Book II, Pt. 3, Sec. iii, of the Treatise of Human Nature.
58. The quotations are from Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, p. 4, and from Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology, p. 120. For the definition of "fitness," see Sociobiology, pp. 117-18, and for Midgley's comment on it, see Mary Midgley, Beast and Man, p. 129n.
59. Wilson's explanation of Mother Teresa's care for the poor is on p. 165 of On Human Nature; for Garrett Hardin's claim, see The Limits of Altruism, p. 26; for Dawkins, see The Selfish Gene, pp. 2-3.
60. The quotation is from The Selfish Gene, p. 3.
61. Richard Titmuss's study of British blood donors was published as The Gift Relationship (London: Allen & Unwin, 1970; New York: Pantheon Books, 1970).
62. Edward Westermarck's thoughts on the expansion of morality were most fully expressed in Ethical Relativity (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1932), Ch. 7.
63. The sources of the several versions of the impartial standard for ethics are as follows. Jewish: Leviticus 19:18, and Rabbi Hillel's saying in the Babylonian Talmud, Order Mo'ed, Tractate Sabbath, sec. 31a; Christian: Matthew 22:39, Luke 6:31, and Matthew 7:12; Confucian: Lun Yii XV:23 and XII:2 (quoted from Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol. I, p. 102); Indian: Mahabharata XXIII: 5571 (quoted by Westermarck); Stoic: Marcus Aurelius, Commentaries, IV, 4, and Seneca, de Otio, IV, 1 (both quoted by Westermarck, Ethical Relativity, p. 204).
64. For a general introduction to Kohlberg's theory, read his article "Stage and Sequence: The Cognitive-Developmental Approach to Socialization," in D. A. Goslin (ed.), Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969).
65. On the connection between moral reasoning and moral action, see L. Kohlberg and R. Mayer, "Development as the Aim of Education," Harvard Educational Review, 42 (1971), p. 491.
66. Useful independent assessments of Kohlberg's theories are J. P. Rushton, "Socialization and the Altruistic Behavior of Children," Psychological Bulletin, 83 (1976), pp. 898-913;
67. E. L. Simpson, "Moral Development Research: A Case Study of Scientific Cultural Bias," Human Development, 17 (1974), pp. 81-106
68. W. D. Boyce and L. C. Jensen, Moral Reasoning: A Psychological-Philosophical Integration (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), especially pp. 110-16 and 154-8.
69. That the existence of a rational element in morality could explain why evolution has not eliminated moral behavior is pointed out by Colin McGinn in "Evolution, Animals and the Basis of Morality," Inquiry, 22 (1979), p. 91. On the idea of reason leading us to a point of view from which we can see that our own interests count for no more than the interests of others, see Tom Nagel, The Possibility of Altruism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970).
70. See Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957), Ch. 1. 146 For more on reasons for choosing the ethical point of view, see the final chapter of my Practical Ethics.
71. Burke's praise of prejudice is on p. 183 of the Penguin (1968) edition of Reflections on the Revolution in France.
72. Godwin's example of rescuing the archbishop or your father comes from his Enquiry Concerning Human Justice (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 71; his reply to Parr is on p. 325 of the same volume.
73. My choice of town planning as an example of too much planning was inspired by Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961).
74. The quotation is from Book III, Part 2, Sec. i, of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature. See also J. L. Mackie, Ethics, p.130.
75. Mother Teresa is quoted from Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), p. U8.
76. The full text of A. H. Clough's satirical poem "The Latest Decalogue" is to be found in The New Oxford Book of Verse, edited by Helen Gardner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
77. Chester Bowles's diary is quoted by David Halberstam in The Best and the Brightest (New York: Random House, 1969), p. 69.
78. The doctrine of Tomas Sanchez on lying is taken from Pascal's The Provincial Letters, translated by A. J. Krailsheimer (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967), pp. 140-1.
79. I owe this reference-and also the reference to McFadden's Medical Ethics-to Sissela Bok, Lying (New York: Pantheon, 1978), p. 31.
80. Sidgwick defends the idea of a "secret" morality on pp. 489-90 of The Methods of Ethics, 7th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1907).
81. My discussion of the place of rules in ethics is indebted to the work of R. M. Hare. See especially his article "Principles," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 73 (1972-3). Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics, Book IV, Ch. III-V, contains an unusually careful discussion of this topic.
82. Wilson accepts the possibility of relatively rapid change in the genetic basis of our behavior in "Competitive and Aggressive Behavior," in J. F. Eisenberg and Wilton Dillon (eds.), Man and Beast: Comparative Social Behavior (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971), p.208.