Reactions to papers/books on evolution~morality

meika loofs samorzewski 17 Aug 2024

This is an organiser or to-do linkpost page for reading and reacting to the following books, papers, and ideas regarded morality-in-broad-terms in relation to evolution.

It's a gap I am trying to fill. As reactions I won't dig too scholarly into to the intertextual background, and just say where I differ and why. When I get bored or repetitive I stop the reaction and say how far I got into the paper.

My basic position is that 'morality' is an outcome and trying to find direct selection for it is maybe possible but there ain't nothing to find as yet. It’s a goose chase, despite all the reasonable arguments.

See also for more general reaction to readings on evolution at Posts on Human Evolution

The ones in bold will have reaction piece. See further comment on my process below the list.

Excerpt (introduction) Giovanni Boniolo and Gabriele De Anna (eds.), Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 220pp., $75.00 (hbk), ISBN 0521856299. PDF included with William J. FitzPatrick’s review of ‘Giovanni Boniolo and Gabriele De Anna (eds.), Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology’, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 220pp., $75.00 (hbk), ISBN 0521856299. [via academia.org by Gabriele De Anna]

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Arvan, Marcus. “Morality as an Evolutionary Exaptation.” 1 Jan. 2021. preprint chapter from  Empirically Engaged Evolutionary Ethics, Springer – Synthese Library.  https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-68802-8_5 2021 Via  academia.edu. Web.

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Babich, Babette. 2012. ‘“What Makes Human Beings Into Moral Beings?” The Significance of Ethics in the Process of Evolution:’, Revista Voluntas: Estudos Sobre Schopenhauer 2(2): 03–30. [via academia.edu]

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Berkman, John R. “The Evolution of Moral Wisdom: What Some Ethicists Might Learn from Some Evolutionary Anthropologists.” from  Evolution of Wisdom: Major and Minor Keys. Notre Dame, Indiana: Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing, 2018. 183–199.[PDF via academia.edu. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.]

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Bertini, Daniele. 2020. ‘Introduction The Evolutionary Approach to Ethics: From Animal Prosociality to Human Morality’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 12(3). DOI:10.24204/EJPR.V12I3.3411 [via academia.edu or philarchive.org]

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Broom, Donald Maurice. “The Evolution of Morality.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100.1–2 (2006): 20. Print. via academia.edu web.

REACTION & substackCrosspost and also a FOLLOW-UP & substackCrosspost on the expanding circle for: Caso, Juan Manuel Rodríguez, and Ricardo Noguera Solano. “Biological and Cultural Evolution of Morality: The Delusion of Progress.” Revista de Filosofía Fundamental (2022): via academia.edu Web. 21 Aug. 2024.

Collier, John and Stingl, Michael ---
    • REACTION  & substackCrosspost: “Evolutionary Naturalism and the Objectivity of Morality.” Biology and Philosophy (1993) 8: 43-50  [via academia.edu]
    • REACTION & substackCrosspost: “Evolutionary Moral Realism.” Biological Theory (forthcoming 2013) [via academia.edu]

Reaction & substackCrosspost: Cartwright, John. “Naturalising Ethics: The Implications of Darwinism for the Study of Moral Philosophy.” Science & Education Vol. 19 (2009): 407–443. via academia.edu Web. [DOI 10.1007/s11191-009-9205-7]


REACTION & substackCrosspost: Copp, David. “Reflections on the Evolutionary Basis of Morality.” Metascience (2017): via academia.edu Web. 1 Aug 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-017-0278-7

Leda Cosmides, Rocardo Anrés Guzmán, and John Tooby. “9. The Evolution of Moral Cognition.” The Routledge Handbook of Moral Epistemology / Edited by Aaron Zimmerman, Karen Jones, Mark Timmons. New York: Routledge, 2018. 174–228.  via academia.edu. Web.  

Curry, Oliver Scott. Morality as Natural History: An Adaptationist Account of Ethics. PhD, London School of Economics, London. N.p., 2004. via academia.edu. Web. 28 Aug. 2024.

Curry, Oliver Scott. 2004. Morality as Natural History An Adaptationist Account of Ethics. Via academia.edu thesis Government Department, London School of Economics and Political Science
Dean, Timothy. “Evolution and Moral Ecology.” via academia.edu. Web. 15 Aug. 2024.

Celia Deane–Drummond. 2014. ‘Evolutionary Perspectives on Inter-Morality and Inter-Species Relationships Interrogated in the Light of the Rise and Fall of Homo Sapiens Sapiens’, Journal of Moral Theology 3(2): 72–94. [via academia.edu] 6 Aug. 2024.

Field, David N. “But Could They Tell Right from Wrong? Evolution, Moral Responsibility and Human Distinctiveness.” via academia.edu. Web. 30 Sept. 2024.


Fraser, Ben. “Adaptation, Exaptation, By-Products and Spandrels in Evolutionary Explanations of Morality.” Biological Theory, 5(3): 223-227 (2010): via academia.edu. Web. 2 Sept. 2024.
 Fraser, Ben, and Sterelny Kim. [2014]. ‘Evolution and Moral Realism’, submission to The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. via academia.edu. Web. 

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Garvey, Brian. “The Evolution of Morality and Its Rollback.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40.2 (2018): via academia.edu. Web. 31 Aug. 2024.

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Geiger, Gebhard. “Evolutionary Anthropology and the Non-Cognitive Foundation of Moral Validity.” Biology and Philosophy Vol. 8, no. 2. 1993 doi.org

Gintis, Herbert. 2008. ‘Strong Reciprocity and the Roots of Human Morality’, Social Justice Research.  via academia.edu

Ursula Goodenough and Terrence Deacon. “From Biology to Consciousness to Morality.” Zygon (2003):  via academia.edu. Web. 27 Nov. 2024.


Haworth, Alan. “Genes and Citizens: Can Moral Philosophy Learn From Evolutionary Biology?” Res Publica (2001):  via academia.edu. Web. 10 Sept. 2024.

READING ONE Joseph Patrick Henrich:

—The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. 2016. Princeton: Princeton university press.

—‘Chapter 7 The Evolution of Innovation-Enhancing Institutions’, Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology, Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology. 2009. Cambridge (Ma.): MIT Press.

— The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. 2020. London: Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books.



REACTION & substackCrosspost: Hillar, Marian. “Morality Is a Principle of Nature Discovered by Philosophy and Evolutionary Sciences.” English version via academia.edu of the chapter ‘Koncepcja naturalnego prawa moralnego w świetle historycznego rozwoju filozofii etyki i jego interpretacja w świetle nowoczesnych nauk ewolucyjnych’ [pp. 137 – 159.]
From Szymczyk, Paulina, and Ewelina Chodźko (eds). Dialog Filozoficzny o Człowieku. Wydawnictwo Tygiel, Lublin, 2021. [book pdf: source and local]

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Joyce, Richard. “Evolution and Moral Naturalism.” The Blackwell Companion to Naturalism (Forthcoming). Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. via academia.edu. Web.  ISBN9781118657607  [Chapter 26 pages 369-385]

Kamal, Raj. “Evolutionary Anthropology and the Non-Cognitive Foundation of Moral Validity.” Biology & Philosophy (1993): via academia.edu. Web. 18 Aug. 2024.

Kitcher, Philip. 1998. ‘Psychological Altruism, Evolutionary Origins, and Moral Rules’, Philosophical Studies. [Via academia.edu]

Korsgaard, Christine M. 2010. Reflections on the evolution of morality. Amherst Lecture in Philosophy. The Department of Philosophy at Amherst College. http://www.amherstlecture.org/korsgaard2010 [also via academia.edu]

Krasnow, Max M. “An Evolutionarily Informed Study of Moral Psychology.” Moral Psychology (2017): 29. via academia.edu web 

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Neil Levy "The Prospects for Evolutionary Ethics Today" Euramerica 40, no. 3 (September 2010): 529-71. Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica http://euramerica.org [via academia.edu] 

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Martin Nowak with Roger Highfield. Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution and Mathematics (or, Why We Need Each Other to Succeed). Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2011. 9781921758294

Reshetnyk, Olga A. “Phylogenetic History of Morality.” Матеріали міжнародної науково-практичної конференції &quot;Україна і світ: Діалог мов та культур&quot; (2015): via academia.edu. Web. 28 Aug. 2024.

Rosas, Alejandro. “Beyond the Sociobiological Dilemma: Social Emotions and the Evolution of Morality.” academia.edu. Web. 12 Aug. 2024.

Rottschaefer, William. “Evolutionary Naturalistic Justifications of Morality: A Matter of Faith and Works.” Biology and Philosophy (1991):  via academia.edu (web) 23 Aug. 2024.

Sakin, Derya--
REACTION & substackCrosspost: “On the Evolutionary Origin of Morality.” Beytülhikme An International Journal of Philosophy (2022): via academia.edu 2 Aug. 2024.
REACTION  & substackCrosspost: The Ascent of Morality, from Non-Human to Human Animals: An Emotion-Based Account. MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, 2021.  via academia.edu.  31 Oct. 2024.

Scheule, Rupert. “‘Evolutionary Ethics 2.0’? New Findings about the Nature of Morality.” via academia.edu. Web. 9 Aug. 2024.

Serber, Ben. “An Evolutionary Vindication of Moral Facts.” via academia.edu Web. 17 Aug. 2024.


Serrelli, Emanuele. “Traits and Functions in the Evolution of Morality.” via academia.edu Web. 14 Aug. 2024.

Severini, Eleonora. “Moral Explanation and Evolutionary Explanation of Morality.” Syzetesis (2022): via academia.edu Web. 14 Aug. 2024.

Stewart-Williams, Steve. “Evolution and Morality.” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). (2015): n. pag. www.academia.edu. Web. 7 Aug. 2024.

REACTION & substackCrosspost: Slimak, Ludovic. 2024. The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature (First Pegasus Books cloth edition.). New York: Pegasus Books. [ISBN9781639366163] substackPostscript

Topçuoğlu, Erdi. “An Investigation of How Human Morality Evolved.” (2015): via academia.edu Web. 5 Aug. 2024.

Vladyková, Ľubov. “Evolution, Moral Network Theory and Contestation of the Rule-Based Model of Moral Reasoning.” The holistic approach to environment (2012): via academia.edu. Web. 2 Sept. 2024.


REACTION & substackCrosspost: Vlerick, Michael. “Better Than Our Nature? Evolution and Moral Realism, Justification and Progress.”  in  Ruse, Michael, and Robert J. Richards, eds. The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Print. Cambridge Handbooks in Philosophy. [Chapter via academia.edu]

Wilson, Catherine. 2010. ‘Darwinian Morality’, Evolution: Education and Outreach (3): 275–87. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0162-z [via academia.edu]

The list accretes mostly by way of suggestions on the academia.edu platform, where peeps upload their papers and chapter and excerpts. I get an email as a serving suggestion, and if appropriate I add it to this list, and then on a first reading create a reaction blogpost. They are not particularly current.

While these are not very considered reviews, they do reveal my interests, biases, inclinations, and other partialities. As such they highlight my strengths in their weakest forms, while allowing me to limber-up mentally. If I do them regularly enough they can provide a sort of reading and thinking exercise, a warm-up practice, and as I descend into my dotage provide the itinerary of my intellectual collapse.

Already, when I read what I have written in the past couple of years I can be astounded at what I wrote (for good or ill), and while mostly I do remember writing the piece, there are times where I have not thought of it again since writing it. This is apparent while I migrate pieces I wrote on substack alone to a self-hosted version beginning early 2024.

Makes me thinks of all those essays written for high school and undergraduate studies. And all the papers post-grads must push out in order to compete.

BOOKS that I have to get hold of first

Richard Joyce, . 2006. The Evolution of Morality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Dennis L. Krebs, Survival of the Virtuous: How We Became a Moral Animal.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 282 pp