Survival of the Virtuous: The Evolution of Moral Psychology

by Dennis L. Krebs

Overview

Do good guys finish last? Did we evolve to look out for number one? Are we bad by nature? At first glance, the theory of evolution seems to imply that all organisms are evolved to be selfish.

In this book, evolutionary psychologist Dennis Krebs explains how virtuous behaviors such as altruism, justice, honesty, loyalty, self-control, purity, and respect for authority, have evolved in humans and other species. He argues that the key to solving puzzles of morality—such as what it is, how we acquire moral traits, why we sometimes behave badly, and how we make moral decisions—lies in figuring out what adaptive functions moral traits served in early human environments and how they are influenced by social learning, culture, and strategic social interactions in the modern world. Arguing that the primary function of virtuous behaviors is to enable individuals to advance their own interests and examining the moral decision-making mechanisms that evolved to serve these functions, this book considers the "new brain" mechanisms that are unique to humans and "old brain" mechanisms that we share with other species, illuminating how these work in conjunction with each other to guide our moral choices.

Survival of the Virtuous is accessibly written for academic and scholarly readers interested in understanding how moral traits evolved in the human species.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197629482
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/06/2022
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dennis Krebs received his BA from the University of British Columbia and his PhD from Harvard University. He served as a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has published several books and more than 100 articles on altruism, morality, and evolutionary psychology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 The Puzzle of Morality 11

2 What Is a Moral Animal? 22

Part I The Evolution of Morality

3 Why We Are Not Selfish by Nature: The Function of Morality 37

4 The Evolution of Complex Moral Strategies and Maladaptive Mistakes 53

5 The Emergence of Morality Through Strategic Interaction 64

6 Primate Morality and the Evolution of Moral Norms 78

7 The Cultural Evolution of Morality 94

Part II Psychological Approaches to Morality

8 Psychological Accounts of Morality 111

9 Reframing Psychological Theories of Morality 132

Part III Psychological and Biological Sources of Virtue

10 Self-Control 153

11 Purity 168

12 Respect for Authority 174

13 Fairness and Honesty 186

14 A Sense of Justice 197

15 Biological Sources of Altruism 209

16 Psychological Sources of Altruism and Loyalty 225

17 Empathy and Altruism 242

18 Human Nature and the Nature of Morality 251

References 265

Index 275