Does Science Undermine Morality?

Abstract

An influential contemporary argument holds that, since evolution provides a complete explanation of the origin of our ethical beliefs and practices, therefore morality cannot be objectively true. This chapter makes the case for the opposite position: that since evolution cannot provide an explanation of morality, then it follows that morality must have an objective source. We demonstrate that none of the suggested evolutionary explanations of ethics are plausible. Our moral beliefs and practices can best be explained by moral objectivism: the traditional belief that the pinnacle of human goals is the moral good.