Evolution

Latest Posts in Evolution

Evolution and Ethics: It’s Not an Oxymoron

Peter Corning

March 13, 2020

The evidence suggests that cooperation was the “master architect” of evolutionary complexity, especially in humankind. That’s why ethics is so important. The selfish gene model of evolution is a one-sided caricature. Darwin himself understood the important role of ethics in human evolution. The ethical implications of a fundamentally cooperative model of human evolution are obvious. Effective social cooperation depends on having a harmonious social relationship.

Ethics in the Garden of Evolution

Peter Corning

March 06, 2018

Evolution and ethics may seem to be incompatible, perhaps even an oxymoron. Isn’t natural selection all about individual competition and winner take all? Logically, the end should justify the means, ethically speaking. As I noted in a previous blog item on the “Survival of the Fittest,” this model is totally deficient. Complex human societies have evolved as a cooperative enterprise, a “superorganism”, and our relationships with one another are highly relevant to the well-being of both the individual members and the whole.