The moral capacity as a biological adaptation: A commentary on Tomasello

ABSTRACT

We welcome Tomasello’s new book on the natural history of human morality as an important confirmation of the evolutionary approach, which sees adaptive behaviors and their psychological underpinnings as linked to a species’ socioecology (the package of subsistence, social, mating, and rearing systems). This perspective automatically leads to the conclusion that the basic set of moral preferences is a straightforward human adaptation to the derived cooperative foraging niche of nomadic foragers, which involves a high degree of interdependence. We provide more background information in support of this evolutionary approach, call for work on defining the contents of the innate core of moral preferences it implies, and urge philosophers to pursue its implications more seriously. Tomasello also offers a historical reconstruction, but his scenario is not compatible with recent comparative data showing a surprising overlap with aspects of human morality, nor does it fit the currently best-supported evolutionary scenario of hominin foraging. We offer a better-fitting alternative, but also call for more behavioral work in child development and on nonhuman primates to improve this reconstruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Hunter-gatherers
• interdependence
• joint intentionality
• prosociality
• reputation
• shared intentionality

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mike Tomasello for the inspiration provided by his book and by his decades of path-breaking research. The authors also thank Neil Roughley for organizing the workshop where the book was discussed, Chris Boehm for valuable comments, and all the workshop’s participants for very fruitful discussions. A word of thanks also goes to the Jacobs Foundation for making the workshop possible.

Disclosure statement

Supported by SNF 310030B_160363 and 31003A_172979. The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carel P. van Schaik

Carel P. van Schaik recently retired as professor of biological anthropology at the University of Zurich. He uses primate behavioral ecology and cognition to reconstruct the evolution of human nature. He (co-)produced some 240 scientific papers, co-edited 10 books, authored Among Orangutans (Harvard UP, 2004), and The Primate Origins of Human Nature (Wiley, 2016), and co-wrote (with Kai Michel) The Good Book of Human Nature (Basic, 2016).

Judith M. Burkart

Judith M. Burkart is a senior researcher at the Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich. She leads the Evolutionary Cognition group and has published over 60 articles in peer reviewed journals. A main focus of her group concerns the role of systematic allomaternal care, present in callitrichid monkeys and humans, in the evolution of social, motivational, and cognitive processes.