Evolutionary ethics

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: In this course students should learn the basic concepts of evolutionary ethics and analyze the most important problems resulting from the application of evolutionary principles to the study of ethics.

Course description: The course gives inside into the most important concepts of the origin of human morality. The main topics are the evolution of altruism and its relation to the ethics, and the other issues are the evolutionary mechanisms, the units of selection problem, the reality of altruism etc. Two questions are highly relevant: can evolutionary ethics bridge the gap between the natural sciences and the philosophy, and can we explain the human moral capacity as an evolutionary adaptation?

Learning Outcomes: Students should improve their ability to analyze ethical issues on the basis of evolutionary principles and their critical appraisal of biologicizing ethics.

Literature/Reading:

• E. Sober, Filozofija biologije, Beograd 2006. (poglavlja 1, 4, 5 i 7)
• D. Polšek (ed.), Sociobiologija, Zagreb 1995: E.O. Wilson, Četiri vrhunca socijalne evolucije i Čovjek: od sociobiologije do sociologije M. Ruse, Sociobiologija životinja R. Axelrod, Evolucija suradnje G. Vollmer, Sociobiologija i etika P. Kitcher, Četiri načina “biologizacije” etike – jedna kritika L. Siep, Što je altruizam?
• E.O. Wilson, O ljudskoj prirodi (poglavlje 7)
• E. Kamerer, « Ideja evolucione etike », Nauka i politika, knjiga 5/2, Istočno Sarajevo 2011.
• N. Sesardic (1995)„Recent Work on Human Altruism and Evolution“, Ethics, Vol. 106, No. 1
• E. Sober, D.S. Wilson, Unto Others. The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, Harvard University Press 1998 (poglavlja 5, 9 i 10)