Resumen

ROSAS, ALEJANDRO. (NATURAL SELECTION AND MORALITY). Ideas y Valores [online]. 2006, vol.55, n.132, pp.53-74. ISSN 0120-0062.

Abstract: In this essay, I address recent attempts to account for morality as an adaptation due to natural selection. After a brief introduction, my exposition has four sections. I first explain the paradox of biological altruism. Second, I explain the solution to the paradox in terms of group selection. This solution was presumably applied by Darwin himself as he discussed human morality, and it has experienced a recent revival, though it remains suspicious to most biologists. In the third section I offer a socio-biological solution that opts for denying that morality can be explained by any form of natural selection. Morality is opposed to human nature as designed by natural selection. In the fourth, I argue for an explanation in terms of individual selection. It does not oppose morality to nature, and does not need the workings of group selection; rather, it operates through the agents' psychological preferences in social interaction.

Palabras clave : morality; natural selection; sociobiology; biological altruism.

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