Evolution and Morality

Can theories of evolution explain the development of our capacityfor moral judgment and the content of morality itself?If bad behavior punished by the criminal law is attributableto physical causes, rather than being intentional or voluntaryas traditionally assumed, what are the implications for rethinkingthe criminal justice system? Is evolutionary theoryand “nature talk,” at least as practiced to date, inherentlyconservative and resistant to progressive and feminist proposalsfor social changes to counter subordination and secureequality? In Evolution and Morality, a group of contributors from philosophy,law, political science, history, and genetics addressmany of the philosophical, legal, and political issues raisedby such questions. This insightful interdisciplinary volumeexamines the possibilities of a naturalistic ethics, the implicationsof behavioral morality for reform of the criminal law,the prospects for a biopolitical science, and the relationshipbetween nature, culture, and social engineering.