From Biology to Consciousness to Morality (original) (raw)

Key Words: biology, consciousness, morality, emergence, brains, symbolic language, culture, moral ideals, moral motivation, virtue Social animals are provisioned with pro-social orientations that 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 emergent human forms of mind. We suggest that our moral frames of mind emerge from our primate pro-social capacities, transfigured and valenced by our symbolic languages, cultures, and religions