Evolutionary debunking - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Evolutionary debunking argument) Philosophical argument against moral and ethical realism

An evolutionary debunking, sometimes referred to as an evolutionary debunking argument or evolutionary debunking thesis, is a philosophical argument which holds that, because humans (like all organisms) have an evolutionary origin, the principles of ethics and morality that we have devised are invalid and cannot be considered objective knowledge. Proponents of such arguments argue that they refute, or at least cast doubt on, moral realism and/or theism. However, critics have argued that these arguments are themselves invalid.

References

Kahane, Guy (March 2011). "Evolutionary Debunking Arguments". Noûs. 45 (1): 103–125. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00770.x. PMC 3175808. PMID 21949447.
^ Wielenberg, Erik J. (April 2010). "On the Evolutionary Debunking of Morality". Ethics. 120 (3): 441–464. doi:10.1086/652292. ISSN 0014-1704. S2CID 144853113.
^ FitzPatrick, William J. (April 2015). "Debunking evolutionary debunking of ethical realism". Philosophical Studies. 172 (4): 883–904. doi:10.1007/s11098-014-0295-y. ISSN 0031-8116. S2CID 170086133.
Jong, Jonathan; Visala, Aku (December 2014). "Evolutionary debunking arguments against theism, reconsidered". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. 76 (3): 243–258. doi:10.1007/s11153-014-9461-6. ISSN 0020-7047. S2CID 170394509.
Vavova, Katia (February 2015). "Evolutionary Debunking of Moral Realism: Evolutionary Debunking of Moral Realism". Philosophy Compass. 10 (2): 104–116. doi:10.1111/phc3.12194.
Vavova, Katia (2006). "Debunking Evolutionary Debunking". Oxford Studies in Metaethics. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-870930-5.

FitzPatrick, William (2016). "Morality and Evolutionary Biology". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
Hanson, Louise (2 December 2016). "The Real Problem with Evolutionary Debunking Arguments" (PDF). The Philosophical Quarterly. 67 (268): pqw075. doi:10.1093/pq/pqw075. ISSN 0031-8094.
Van Eyghen, Hans (2020). Arguing from Cognitive Science of Religion: Is Religious Belief Debunked?. Bloomsbury Academic. doi:10.5040/9781350100329. ISBN 978-1-3501-0029-9.
Muus, Harriet (12 August 2024). "Evolutionary Ethics and Mate Selection". PsyArXiv. Center for Open Science. doi:10.31234/osf.io/c659q.

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary
processes

Areas

Cognition / Emotion	Affect Display Display rules Facial expression Behavioral modernity Cognitive module/modularity of mind Automatic and controlled processes Computational theory of mind Domain generality Domain specificity Dual process theory Cognitive tradeoff hypothesis Evolution of the brain Evolution of nervous systems Fight-or-flight response Arachnophobia Basophobia Ophidiophobia Folk biology/taxonomy Folk psychology/theory of mind Intelligence Flynn effect Wason selection task Motor control/skill Multitasking Sleep Visual perception Color vision Eye Naïve physics
Culture	Aesthetics Literary criticism Musicology Anthropology Biological Crime Language Origin Psychology Speech Morality Moral foundations Religion Origin Universals
Development	Attachment Bonding Affectional/maternal/paternal bond Caregiver deprivation Childhood attachment Cinderella effect Cognitive development Education Language acquisition Personality development Socialization
Human factors / Mental health	Cognitive ergonomics Computer-mediated communication Engineering psychology Human–computer interaction Media naturalness theory Neuroergonomics Depression Digital media use and mental health Hypophobia Imprinted brain hypothesis Mind-blindness Psychological effects of Internet use Rank theory of depression Schizophrenia Screen time Smartphones and pedestrian safety Social aspects of television Societal effects of cars Distracted driving Lead–crime hypothesis Mobile phones and driving safety Texting while driving
Sex	Activity Adult attachment Age disparity Arousal Concealed ovulation Coolidge effect Desire Fantasy Hormonal motivation Jealousy Mate guarding Mating preferences Mating strategies Orientation Ovulatory shift hypothesis Pair bond Physical/Sexual attraction Sexuality/male/female Sexy son hypothesis Westermarck effect
Sex differences	Aggression Autism Cognition Crime Division of labour Emotional intelligence Empathising–systemising theory Gender role Intelligence Memory Mental health Narcissism Neuroscience Schizophrenia Substance abuse Suicide Variability hypothesis

Related subjects

Academic disciplines	Behavioral/evolutionary economics Behavioral epigenetics/genetics Affective/behavioral/cognitive/evolutionary neuroscience Biocultural anthropology Biological psychiatry Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Cross-cultural psychology Ethology Evolutionary biology Evolutionary medicine Functional psychology Neuropsychology Philosophy of mind Population genetics Primatology Sociobiology
Research topics	Cultural evolution Evolutionary epistemology Great ape language Human–animal communication Missing heritability problem Primate cognition Unit of selection Coevolution Cultural group selection Dual inheritance theory Fisher's principle Group selection Hologenome theory Lamarckism Population Punctuated equilibrium Recent human evolution Species Species complex Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance Trivers–Willard hypothesis
Theoretical positions	Cultural selection theory Determinism/indeterminism Biological determinism Connectionism Cultural determinism Environmental determinism Nature versus nurture Psychological nativism Social constructionism Social determinism Standard social science model Functionalism Memetics Multilineal evolution Neo-Darwinism Neoevolutionism Sociocultural evolution Unilineal evolution

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