The origins of morality: Social equality, fairness, and justice

ABSTRACT

Tomasello’s A Natural History of Morality is novel, compelling, and comprehensive. Drawing on past and current research in developmental psychology, as well as moral philosophy, I make the following points: (1) cooperation is a significant major hallmark of early human sociality but is also the foundation for antagonistic goals designed to enhance one’s own group’s benefit at the cost of due justice to others; (2) interdependence coexists with independent autonomous thinking, which is necessary for challenging group norms, authority, and institutional mandates, and is a core aspect of morality; and (3) morality after age 5 years undergoes major, qualitative developments which shed light on what it means to view morality as an impartial obligation to uphold fairness, to recognize the breadth of moral concepts including equality, rights, and others’ welfare, and to challenge social inequality and injustice, throughout human ontogenetic development.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomous thinking
• cooperation
• fairness
• morality
• peer relationships
• social equality

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Neil Roughley for inviting me to the Marbach castle for a stimulating discussion of Tomasello’s book, and for deftly organizing the workshop, supported by the Jacobs Foundation. I am extremely grateful for the constructive and insightful feedback from Audun Dahl, Amanda Burkholder, Alexander D’Esterre, Laura Elenbaas, Leon Li, Michael T. Rizzo, and an anonymous reviewer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie Killen

Melanie Killen is Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, Professor of Psychology (Affiliate), and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. Her research areas include the origins of morality, social development, social exclusion, origins of prejudice, intergroup attitudes, bias and stereotypes, and theory of mind and morality. She is the Editor of the Handbook of Moral Development (with J. Smetana), along with editing six other books, and the author of Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity (with A. Rutland). She has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for her research, and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.