What Makes Us Moral?

Book excerpt: Many people fear that science, in the form of genetics and evolutionaryiology, will show that everything we hold most dear is illusory or shameful.orality will prove to be disguised selfishness; our choices will be shown toe driven by instincts; our reasoning will prove to be constrained by ouriology. This book argues that these fears are groundless. Our morality, likeur emotions and our abilities, is indeed the product of evolution, but thisoes not make it illusory. Nor should we conclude, as so many psychologistsnd biologists have done, that our morality is reducible to our biologicalnstincts. Instead, properly understood, the evidence from the sciencesupports the view that the moral capacities we have are capable ofeassessing the very processes which gave birth to them, condemning theiological selfishness in which they had their origin. Human nature is aumane nature, at least in all the ways that matter, and understanding ourrigins ought to make us marvel at it all the more.