Darwin as an Ethical Theorist

by Mark Anthony Signorelli (May 2011)

[xxii]where he displays no recognition that the attribution of “magnanimity” to a dog invites all sorts of questions, that need to be addressed: is the term purely behavioral, or does it have a subjective facet, and if the latter, how can we confidently assert it in the case of any non-linguistic creature? As for the meaning of “the good,” its reference is simply settled by scientific fiat: “the term, general good, may be defined as the rearing of the greatest number of individuals in full vigor and health, with all their faculties perfect, under the conditions to which they are subjected.”[xxiii] What fools were Plato and Aquinas to have sweated so long at their tedious metaphysical deductions of “the good,” when they might have appropriated the title of “scientist” – confident that modern man would bow his head accordingly – and asserted what they wished on the matter without more ado! Nothing in the Descent of Man screams out so loudly the amateurishness of Darwin’s philosophical musings than his insouciant use of ethical concepts, without any regard for their definition or defense.

And then there is the very grave question of whether a man who pens the following villainy has any right to touch upon moral topics at all:

[i] http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/morality10/morality.haidt.html
[ii] Darwin, Charles  The Descent of Man  (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 66.
[iii] Darwin, 41.
[iv] Darwin, 176.
[v] “At all times throughout the world tribes have supplanted other tribes; and as morality is one important element in their success, the standard of morality and the number of well-endowed men will thus everywhere tend to rise and increase,” Darwin, 158.  Also, “In regard to the moral qualities, some elimination of the worst dispositions is always in progress even in the most civilized nations,” Darwin, 162.
[vi] Darwin, 92.
[vii] Darwin, 125.
viii] Darwin, 96.
[ix] Darwin, 118.
[x] Darwin, 104.
[xi] Darwin, 105.
[xii] Darwin, 111.
[xiii] Darwin, 96.
[xiv] Darwin, 99.
[xv] See Plutarch’s essay “On the Use of Reason by ‘Irrational Animals;’” also, for a realist, Aristotlean account of ethics, which begins from a recognition of the rationality in non-human animals, see Alasdair MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals.
[xvi ]I am well aware that there is a vast literature out there which challenges this point. I am also well aware that most of it is verbose rubbish, what Roger Scruton called “neurotrash.” But I stand by my criterion; I will believe that moral knowledge is a material entity when, and only when, conclusive empirical evidence is produced of a DNA sequence that codes for “love thy neighbor as thyself,” or a pattern of neuron firing that correlates to “honesty is the best policy.”  
[xvii] Darwin, 145.  This is, incidentally, a clear assertion of group selection, and is thoroughly at odds with the modern genetic theory of natural selection.
[xviii] “This is almost the blackest fact in natural history, unless, indeed, the explanation which has been suggested is true, that their instinct or reason leads them to expel an injured companion, lest beasts of prey, including man, should be tempted to follow the troop.” Darwin, 125.
[xix ]Darwin, 143.
[xx] Darwin, 147.
[xxi] Barzun, Jacques  Darwin, Marx, Wagner  (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1958) 74.
[xxii] Darwin, 92.
[xxiii] Darwin, 145.
[xxiv] Darwin, 140.
[xxv] Darwin, 149.
[xxvi] Darwin, 125.
[xxvii] Darwin, 176.
[xxviii] Darwin, 159.
[xxix] Darwin, Charles Autobiography (New York: Norton, 1969), 140.

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