Meloni, Maurizio (2013) Moralizing biology: the appeal and limits of the new compassionate view of nature. [Preprint]
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Abstract
In recent years, a proliferation of books about empathy, cooperation and pro-social behaviors (Brooks, 2011a) has significantly influenced the discourse of the life-sciences and reversed consolidated views of nature as a place only for competition and aggression. In this article I describe the recent contribution of three disciplines – moral psychology (Jonathan Haidt), primatology (Frans de Waal) and the neuroscience of morality – to the present transformation of biology and evolution into direct sources of moral phenomena, a process here named the ‘moralization of biology’. I conclude by addressing the ambivalent status of this constellation of authors, for whom today ‘morality comes naturally’: I explore both the attractiveness of their message, and the problematic epistemological assumptions of their research-programs in the light of new discoveries in developmental and molecular biology.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Additional Information: | Accepted manuscript of Meloni, M. (2013). Moralizing biology: the appeal and limits of the new compassionate view of nature. History of the Human Sciences, 26(3), 82-106. Pls refer to final version at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0952695113492163 | ||||||
Keywords: | moral psychology, primatology, neuroscience of morality, moral brain, developmental biology | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Science and Society Specific Sciences > Sociology |
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Depositing User: | Dr Maurizio Meloni | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 20 Jul 2020 00:52 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 20 Jul 2020 00:52 | ||||||
Item ID: | 17565 | ||||||
Official URL: | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09526... | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Science and Society Specific Sciences > Sociology |
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Date: | 2013 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17565 |
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