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Evolution and Human Values
edited by Robert Wesson and Patricia A. Williams

Table of Contents
Part 1: Evolutionary Ethics: Amalgamating Evolutionary Theory and Ethics
1: The Amorality of Darwinism by Robert Wesson
2: Cultural Being or Biological Being: The “Implications” of Modern Biology by Howard L. Kaye
3: Evolution, Ethics, and the Complexity Revolution by David J. Depew and Bruce H. Weber
4: The Moral Imperative of Our Future Evolution by John H. Campbell

Part 2: Evolved Ethics: Explaining Human Moral Nature as a Product of Evolution
5: How Much in the Human Condition Is without Counterpart in Other Animals? by Bernard G. Campbell
6: Belief in Unseen Beings: Its Evolutionary Basis and Its Effects on Morality by Brant Wenegrat

Part 3: Scientific Ethics: Combining Human Nature and Ethics
7: Choosing a Demographic Future by Richard J. Herrnstein
8: The Implications of Biology for Liberalism and Conservatism by Patricia A. Williams
9: Evolutionary Theory and Welfare Policy by Alan Gewirth

From the Introduction
The intertwining of evolution and ethics began in nineteenth century England in the writings of Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin. Both Spencer and Darwin developed theories about organic evolution, theories differing from one another in important respects. One of the differences led them, and those who followed them, to take dissimilar roads in their respective attempts to unite evolution and ethics. The difference is this: for Spencer, evolution was progressive, culminating in things human; for Darwin, it went nowhere.

In the history of evolution and ethics, the Spencerian road has been the main highway, the highway most traveled by followers and critics alike. Historically, Spencer is considered the founder of the attempt to derive ethics from the theory or the path of evolution. If the evolutionary path progresses, climbing upward like a ladder upon whose top rung sit human beings, and if human attributes are valuable, then valid Spencerian theories are easily constructed, resulting in what is known as “evolutionary ethics.”

by Patricia A. Williams