Reflection for the Week - July 26

Evolutionary ethics properly argues that there are biological reasons for ethical developments and orientations in humans. Thus, moral sensitivity appears to be a biological phenomenon, yet this alone does not explain particular or well defined moral codes and configurations that have arisen in the human niche, nor does it help us draw conclusions about right and wrong. So, there’s more. We’re also heavily embedded in and dependent on context, culture, texts, and tradition, and through these become interpreters of ourselves. These informers, which offer some direction, are nevertheless so diverse and porous that we’re left having to continually work out how to live with others in a shared world.