EVOLUTION AND NORMATIVITY
Michael Bradie
1 GENERAL INTRODUCTIONHuman beings are complex organisms with highly developed physical attributes
(e.g., upright walking and opposable thumbs) as well as highly developed emotional
and intellectual capabilities. Evolutionary accounts of the origin and development
of human beings offer a descriptive window into how we humans have come to be,
on average, the creatures that we are. Among the intellectual qualities we possess
are the ability to describe the world around us and the ability to communicate
these descriptions to others. In addition to having the ability to say how things
are, we have the ability to say how thingsoughttobe.Weareprescribers as well
asdescribers. The act of prescribing involves the articulation, endorsement and
application ofnorms. Human beings arenormative beings.
Norms are guides to how we ought to behave and what we ought to believe.
Norms of behavior can roughly be classed as “ethical norms” although there is
a range of cases here. At one end of the normative spectrum are items such as
The Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments. At the other end are pragmatic
rules of utility such as “Drive on the right (or left).” In between are a range of
cases such as “Avoid incest,” “Infanticide is wrong,” “Abortion is wrong,” and
the like. Norms of belief can roughly be classified as “epistemic norms” and there
is a range of cases here as well. Epistemic norms include rules of justification,
evidential principles, principles of scientific methodology, and what might be called
“engineering principles” of the form “If you want to build a better mousetrap, then
.. .”.
Providing examples of norms is fairly easy. All human societies and all human
practices employ norms. The tricky questions come when one inquires about the
sourceandforceof norms. How do norms arise? Where do they come from? In
certain cases the origin is clearly artificial or conventional. The rules of chess or of
baseball, for example, are (low level) behavioral norms that we adopt and adhere
to by convention. It seems less plausible to suggest that “serious” norms such as
the Golden Rule are matters of artifice or convention. We are more inclined to
believe that such rules are somehow rooted in our “natures.” This opens up the
possibility that, given that our “natures” are the product of evolutionary processes,
we may somehow find some evolutionary grounding for these principles.
The second tricky question concerns the “force” of norms. Where does the force
of norms come from and why should we obey them? Attempts to answer these
General editors: Dov M. Gabbay,
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Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Biology
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