The most basic description of evolutionary ethics describes this thought to
bridge the gap between philosophy and natural sciences. A moral sense or
a disposition to be good has been instilled through natural selection
(https://iep.utm.edu/evol-eth/ (Links to an external site.) ). This concept
has been promoted by the likes of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spenser.
Evolutionary ethics was considered a flawed system and proposed
problems for philosophers forty years ago, but now there is much
enthusiasm for linking morality and evolutionary biology (Huxley & Ruse,
2009, 27).
According to McQuilken and Copan, evolutionary ethics is viewed as
having allowed our ethical beliefs to help us as humans survive and
reproduce through the evolutionary process (McQuilken & Copan 2014,
180). If one were to hold to evolutionary ethics, the inevitable problem is
that it still doesn’t negate God as the source of morality (McQuilken &
Copan 2014, 180). Therefore, there is still the question of where did the
source of morality originate? There are many foundational cracks through
the thought of evolutionary ethics. Still, McQuilken and Copan’s most
compelling reason to reject evolutionary ethics is the lack of trust that
would be placed in our beliefs because humans are “material, valueless,
mindless…” and therefore would place our moral beliefs in the hands of
non-rational forces beyond our control (McQuilken & Copan 2014, 180).
This would imply that even humans would not be able to trust thei