An Introduction to Evolutionary Ethics Read Online Free PDF Page A

emphasize the unlikely power of form or law in the creation of solutions. To be sure, writing a sonnet and designing species are dis-analogous in a variety of ways. Most notably, there is no analogy to the role of poet in the case of evolution; the metaphor of “tinkerer” is just that, a metaphor. There is selection going on in both instances, but the most that can be said in the case of evolution is that species are being selected for by the processes outlined above. Still, the metaphor is instructive: Mother Nature “tinkers” with the different designs that genetic mutations make available, just as we would tinker with words in composing a sonnet. Of course, like the vast majority of words you can think of, most organic alterations won't fit within the imposing confines already set up. Such alterations either don't fit locally (they're incompatible with the organism's internal structure) or globally (they decrease an organism's reproductive success relative to its neighbors). But every now and then, a slight modification of existing structure fits. Mother Nature's tinkering pays off. And, as in the case of writing the sonnet, the originality can be breathtaking: webbed feet, echolocation, poisonous venom, photosynthesis. Perhaps even thought.
    So maybe we should take Richard Dawkins' advice: “Never say, and never take seriously anyone who says, ‘I cannot believe that so-and-so could have evolved by gradual selection.’ I have dubbed this kind of fallacy ‘the Argument from Personal Incredulity.’ Time and again, it has proven the prelude to an intellectual banana-skin experience” (1995: 70).
    In the next section we build on these earlier scientific developments and explore the exciting (and controversial) new field of evolutionary psychology. As the name suggests, evolutionary psychology proposes to study the human mind in the same way that evolutionary biologists study organic form: by applying the principles of Darwinian selection. In this case, the objects of study are patterns of human behavior, patterns of human thought and desire. The study is directly relevant to our main focus, for it is often within the field of evolutionary psychology that some theorists locate the evidence for an evolved moral sense. 5
    1.4 Evolutionary Psychology and Human Nature You may have no problem accepting a Darwinian explanation for the structure of the human eye. Ditto for the human lungs, liver, colon, and circulation system. But what about jealousy? What about friendship? What about men's proneness to violence, or women's interest in looking young? What about language? These things, you say, are another matter. Perhaps not, say evolutionary psychologists.
    Today, Darwin's ideas about evolution occupy an interesting place. On the one hand, when it comes to explaining the bodily features of human beings (the human heart or the human hip joint), most people have no problem appealing to evolution by natural selection. On the other hand, when it comes to explaining the psychological features of human beings, people resist appealing to evolution by natural selection – if it occurs to them at all. Apparently, there is an explanatory divide between the human body and the human mind. That divide is perpetuated (I suspect) by the weatherbeaten distinction between nature and nurture.
    The prevailing assumption is that the human body is as it is by nature (for example, you didn't learn to grow legs instead of fins), whereas the human mind is as it is by nurture. Your attitudes about what makes a desirable mate, for example, were primarily shaped by your environment. That divide between body and mind, however, is eroding. In this section, we explore what some are calling the new science of the mind, evolutionary psychology, which actively seeks to integrate psychology and evolutionary biology.
    Contrary to the prevailing assumption, evolutionary psychology maintains that there is a common explanatory framework underlying both human