Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame PDF

Rating: (16 reviews) Author: Christopher Boehm ISBN : 9780465020485 New from $10.01 Format: PDF

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From the age of Darwin to the present day, biologists have been grappling with the origins of our moral sense. Why, if the human instinct to survive and reproduce is “selfish,” do people engage in self-sacrifice, and even develop ideas like virtue and shame to justify that altruism? Many theories have been put forth, some emphasizing the role of nepotism, others emphasizing the advantages of reciprocation or group selection effects. But evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm finds existing explanations lacking, and in Moral Origins, he offers an elegant new theory.

Tracing the development of altruism and group social control over 6 million years, Boehm argues that our moral sense is a sophisticated defense mechanism that enables individuals to survive and thrive in groups. One of the biggest risks of group living is the possibility of being punished for our misdeeds by those around us. Bullies, thieves, free-riders, and especially psychopaths—those who make it difficult for others to go about their lives—are the most likely to suffer this fate. Getting by requires getting along, and this social type of selection, Boehm shows, singles out altruists for survival. This selection pressure has been unique in shaping human nature, and it bred the first stirrings of conscience in the human species. Ultimately, it led to the fully developed sense of virtue and shame that we know today.

A groundbreaking exploration of the evolution of human generosity and cooperation, Moral Origins offers profound insight into humanity’s moral past—and how it might shape our moral future.

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• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465020488
• ISBN-13: 978-0465020485
• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 6.7 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame PDF

In "Hierarchy in the Forest, the evolution of egalitarian behavior" (1999,) Christopher Boehm brought to my attention the most important paradox to be solved in the subject of human evolution: how and why did hunter gatherer humans evolve egalitarian societies within their bands when those of chimpanzees (and Bonobos) are clearly hierarchical. As he points out, alone amongst all the books on how morality evolved that are endlessly focused on the abstractions of game theory and inclusive fitness, Boehm actually gives us an historical narrative about why it might have happened. He makes the case that it evolved due to the cooperative needs to share meat when big game hunting commenced about 250,000 years ago, similar to equitable meat sharing in other meat eaters like wolves and lions. In "Moral Origins," Boehm brings his argument up to date with what feels like his final statement. This is a marvelous book by a scientist who has committed his career to a vital question pertaining to human nature. Particularly admirable is the expression of the proper tone of scientific humility as to the tentative status of his hypothesis and that it gets the conversation going. It is not at all a criticism of this book to briefly state that my own view is that the "roughness" of the egalitarianism in late Pleistocene humans was a deterioration from total egalitarianism in Homo erectus, and that this breakdown was caused by increased sexual competition implicit in the changes that produced our own Homo sapiens species. The sole piece of evidence used to bolster increasing egalitarianism is a paper by Mary Stiner (2009) that demonstrates cut marks on bones were straight 200,000 years ago and "chaotic" 400,000 years ago indicating that they were done by many individuals.

In Moral Origins, Christopher Boehm tackles the evolutionary origin of our conscience and the factors that might have propelled its integration into the species. Moral behaviour, from an evolutionary perspective, can seem a perplexing developement as altruism is hard to incorporate into an environment in which individuals are competing for resources. The author attempts to describe how such behaviour evolved and why it might not contradict any evolutionary principles and was in fact an attribute that improved genetic suitability.

The book is not particularly well structured but it start off with a discussion that includes some of the social features of chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos. It discusses the similarities and differences in group behaviour, group arbitration and generally the interpersonal dynamics of some of our closest genetic relationships. The author, through accounts as well as personal experience details how our primate relations do not exhibit moral behaviour. This is argued from experience but not in a rigourous scientific fashion, though that is probably impossible to achieve.

The author includes a discussion of hunter gatherer reciprocity and dynamics and ethics in the remaining tribes today. There are narratives and personal accounts. The overlap in ethics and morality is highlighted and so are the solutions fo conflict resolution. The similarities in how tribes deal with alpha male aggressive tendencies as well as subversive anti-social behaviour is detailed in several specific cases. The overlap in human tendencies in various foraging societies is detailed through personal narratives to demonstrate the similarity in how reciprocity and moral reasoning is valued.