Evolution and Ethics
Also known as Evolution and Ethics: Prolegomena and Romanes Lecture, Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays
Thomas Henry Huxley's 1893 Romanes Lecture on whether ethics can be drawn from evolution.
At a glance
Key ideas
No moral purpose in nature, Minds evolved, Values are not inherited …
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Thomas Henry Huxley and Herbert Spencer
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- Huxley asks whether biology has anything particular to say about moral philosophy.
- He dismisses religion as a source of moral authority, and holds that the human mind is as much a product of evolution as the body.
- But the details of values are set partly by culture and partly by individual choice.
- Morality is often at war with natural instinct, and ethics cannot be derived from the struggle for existence.
Why it matters
- Perhaps the best known of his later writings; its Chinese translation is influential in China and transformed how Darwin's On the Origin of Species was translated there.
Key facts
- Author
- Thomas Henry Huxley1
- Given
- 1893, as the Romanes Lecture1
- Collected in
- Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays, 18931
- Later
- His grandson Julian Huxley gave a Romanes Lecture on the same theme1
Key ideas
-
No moral purpose in nature1
"Of moral purpose I see not a trace in nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture."
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Minds evolved1
Emotions, intellect and the tendency to live in groups are inherited products of evolution.
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Values are not inherited1
The details of ethics come from culture and individual choice.
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Ethics against instinct1
Morality and duty are often at war with natural instincts, so ethical choice is each person's responsibility.
Connections
Links
Sources
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