Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2003
Originally Published In
Goodenough, U., & Deacon, T. W. (2003). From biology to consciousness to morality. Zygon, 38(4), 801-819. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2003.00540.x
Abstract
Social animals are provisioned with prosocial orientations that operate to transcend self-interest. Morality, as used here, describes human versions of such orientations. We explore the evolutionary antecedents of morality in the context of emergentism, giving considerable attention to the biological traits that undergird awareness and our emergent human forms of mind. We suggest that our moral frames of mind emerge from our primate prosocial capacities, transfigured and valenced by our symbolic languages, cultures, and religions.
Portions of this article were given by Deacon in a paper at the forty-ninth annual conference of IRAS, “Is Nature Enough? The Thirst for Transcendence,” Star Island, New Hampshire, 27 July-3 August 2002.
Recommended Citation
Goodenough, Ursula and Deacon, Terrence W., "From Biology to Consciousness to Morality" (2003). Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations. 85.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bio_facpubs/85
Comments
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Goodenough, U., & Deacon, T. W. (2003). From biology to consciousness to morality. Zygon, 38(4), 801-819, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2003.00540.x . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.