Academic

Kuklin on Evolutionary Biology & Morality

By Lawrence Solum

Bailey H. Kuklin (Brooklyn Law School) has posted The Natures of Universal Moralities (Brooklyn Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

One of the abiding lessons from postmodernism is that reason does not go all the way down. That is, one cannot deductively derive a universal morality from incontestible moral primitives, or practical reason alone. Instead, even reasoned moral systems must ultimately be grounded on intuition, a sense of justice. The question then arises, whence come moral intuitions? Evolutionary biology offers answers. In this article, I examine the main ones. Since the products of evolutionary principles are contingent on chance and the environment in which the evolution occurs, I speculate on the range of moral intuitions consistent with these principles.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).