Michael E. Price is Senior Lecturer in Psychology, and co-Director of the Centre for Culture and Evolutionary Psychology, at Brunel University London. He has a BA from Duke University and a PhD from the UC Santa Barbara Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and he has conducted studies among both Westerners and indigenous Amazonians. His research focuses mainly on the evolutionary origins of moral beliefs, especially those related to cooperation, punishment, egalitarianism, leadership, and sexual behavior.
If we’re doing psychology, therefore, then we’re also doing evolutionary psychology: we’re trying to understand evolved adaptations—and their mental, behavioral, and cultural products and by-products—and our ability to do so is enhanced through the invocation of evolutionary principles.
Given that morality is so important, you’d think we’d want to make sure that we were doing it right.Given that morality is so important, you’d think we’d want to make sure that we were doing it right. That is, you’d think that we would insist on knowing why we have the beliefs that we have, how those beliefs came into being, who they benefit, and where they are likely to lead us.
TVOL is pleased to explore the question “Is there a universal morality?” with the help of philosophers and scientists at the forefront of studying morality in light of “this view of life”. Our fifteen essayists provided a surprising diversity of answers to the question.
Why should anyone care about evolution literacy when so many other issues clamor for our attention, such as the economy, inequality, climate change, terrorism, and the refugee crisis? The answer is that evolutionary theory can help us understand and provide solutions to each and every one of these issues.
Universes might evolve to be ‘selfish’—that is, as if they were interested in propagating their own kind—just as biological organisms act as if they were interested in spreading their own genes.
Our geopolitical world seems increasingly unstable, and some see this instability as a threat to Humanist values. But do not fear.