Is There A Natural Moral
Sense?
Dr. Sally Ferguson
Philosophy and Religious Studies
University of West Florida
Cognitive ethology: the
study of animal minds
Imitative octopi and
the conditions for
the evolution of
culture
 “Example is not the
main thing in
influencing others; it
is the only thing” –
Albert Schweitzer

Cognitive ethology tells
us that our close
primate relatives
Reason like us
Communicate like us
Cognitive ethology’s
next frontier: ethics?

What features of
our moral sense
do we share in
common with
other animals?
A central feature of our
moral sense

ALTRUISM, or a
concern for the
welfare of others,
even at the
expense of our
own.
But WAIT!
Evolution is “selfish
genes” and “nature red in
tooth and claw”.
 Morality requires us to be
unselfish.
 How can evolution
produce morality?

The explanation?
Multi-level thinking in
evolutionary biology

From the point of view of our genes
– sex is simply about replication,
– but from our point of view it feels good.

From the point of view of our genes
– food keeps us alive so we can reproduce,
– but from our point of view it is tasty.
The ultimate example:
family

From the point of view of our genes,
– the value of family is that it replicates our
genes
– but we reproduce because it gives us joy.
Understanding evolved
altruism
If altruism evolved, it is because it
promotes our survival and
reproduction.
 But the evolutionary value of altruism
needn’t be the value of altruism TO
US.

So far so good?
Morality involves altruism, and
 Ok, so maybe altruism COULD have
evolved.
 But is there any evidence that it DID
evolve?
 One kind of evidence would be from
cognitive ethology.
 Our next question: do other animals
show altruism?

Cognitive ethology tells
us that…

Altruism is common in the animal
world:
– care of offspring other than one’s own
– food-sharing
– alerting others to the presence of food
– warning others of predators
– preventing disputes
– aiding reconciliation
– even protecting the disabled
But is animal altruism
“true altruism”?

True altruism is a concern for the
general welfare of others, even those
far removed from us, regardless of any
gain for ourselves.
Some animal altruism
is “kin selection”



Kin Selection – acting to benefit one’s close
relatives at the expense of oneself or one’s
own offspring.
Example: Nursing lions
Note the role of gene-selectionism in this
reasoning
Some animal altruism
is “reciprocal altruism”



Reciprocal altruism – acting to
benefit another with the expectation
of a return of the favor.
Example: Political alliances among
chimps.
Machiavellian Intelligence
Hypothesis: Brain growth in
primates and hominids due to
demands of navigating social arena
True Human Altruism?
The Ultimatum Game

The Ultimatum Game (Gintis, et al)
– In the ultimatum game, under conditions of
anonymity, two players are shown a sum of money,
say $10.
– One of the players, called the "proposer," is
instructed to offer any number of dollars, from $1 to
$10, to the second player, who is called the
"responder." The proposer can make only one
offer.
– The responder, again under conditions of
anonymity, can either accept or reject this offer. If
the responder accepts the offer, the money is
shared accordingly. If the responder rejects the
offer, both players receive nothing.
Ultimatum Strategy
“Since the game is played only once
and the players do not know each
other's identity, a self-interested
responder will accept any positive
amount of money.”
 “Knowing this, a self-interested
proposer will offer the minimum
possible amount, $1, and this will be
accepted.”

Ultimatum Surprise!


“However, when actually played, the selfinterested outcome is never attained and
never even approximated.”
“In fact, as many replications of this
experiment have documented, under
varying conditions and with varying amounts
of money, proposers routinely offer
respondents very substantial amounts (50%
of the total generally being the modal offer)
and respondents frequently reject offers
below 30%.”
Ultimatums Worldwide


“Twelve experienced field researchers,
working in 12 countries on four continents,
recruited subjects from 15 small-scale
societies exhibiting a wide variety of
economic and cultural conditions.”
“The canonical model of self-interested
behavior is not supported in any society
studied. In the ultimatum game, for
example, in all societies either respondents,
or proposers, or both, behaved in a
reciprocal manner.”
Back to animal
altruism
Some is kin selection –not general
 Some is reciprocal altruism – not
general


Do animals ever show concern for
members of their group who are
– Not closely related, and
– with whom they have no specific
“contract”?
Some animal altruism
looks more like “true”
altruism

Food Sharing – vampire bats
– Food is shared with non-relatives, with no
direct payback
More “true” altruism?

Signaling of predators and prey –
vervet monkeys, ravens
– Predators are signaled to entire colony, at
great risk to signaler
So far so good?

Altruistic behavior of all sorts is found
in animals of all sorts:
– Kin selection
– Reciprocal altruism
– Even “group concern”

Next question: On a more general
level, what does it take for evolution to
get morality started?
“Tit for Tat”

Robert Axelrod discovered by
computer simulation that “tit for tat” is
the winning strategy in reciprocal
situations.
– Always assume a trusting position to start
– Punish “cheaters”, but
– Don’t hold a grudge
Kitcher on Cooperation

Grooming in primate groups
– Benefits: more thorough grooming of
places you can’t reach easily
– Costs: Time and energy spent grooming
others could have been spent finding
food, mates, etc.
– Risk: You might thoroughly groom an
individual who doesn’t thoroughly groom
you back
Cooperative Stategies




Discriminating Altruist (DA) – Always
groom anyone who hasn’t defected on you
in the past, and always cooperate. Never
groom anyone who has defected on you in
the past.
Willing defector (WD) – Always groom
anyone (even if they’ve defected on you in
the past) and always defect.
Going Solo (SO) – Always opt out – refuse
to groom anyone.
Selective defection (SD) – Always groom
anyone who hasn’t defected on you in the
past, and always defect.
Kitcher on Cooperation

What Kitcher showed:
– Assume DA arises by mutation
 If
only one DA, then the mutation will likely be
lost over time, since fitness benefits will not be
gained, and only a 50% chance of passing it
on.
 But if TWO DAs arise, then that mutation will
spread, and DA will come to dominate over
time in the population.
 Note that Axelrod’s Tit for Tat experiments
showed that DA is not the best strategy,
because it is not forgiving enough.
Conditions for the
evolution of altruism
– Group value
 Living
in the group
provides benefits
(protection, coordinated
hunting)
– Mutual aid
 Members
of the group
can assist one another
(share food, form
alliances)
– Conflicts of interest
 What
the individual wants
is not always what’s good
for the group as a whole
Balancing Interests
Claim: one of the functions of our
moral sense is to allow us to balance
individual and collective interests when
they conflict.
 Question: how do our primate relatives
balance those interests?

Balancing conflicting
interests, the primate
way

Primates balance group and individual
interests on two levels
– Lower level: One on one relations
 Direct
reciprocation
 Reconciliation
– Higher level: Community concern
 Arbitration
of disputes
 Group-wide appreciation
Lower level: Direct
reciprocation
 Grooming,
food sharing
 Alphas and lower ranks
Lower level:
Reconciliation
Making up after a fight
 Sometimes winners
initiate, sometimes
losers do

Higher level: Arbitration
of disputes
Intervening before and after fights.
 Role of females in promoting harmony
among males

Higher level: Groupwide appreciation
Female chimp confiscates the stick one
male is about to hit another with, and
observers hoot and celebrate.
Primate morality
The conditions for the evolution of
morality exist in our primate relatives.
 Moreover, those relatives have
evolved ways of balancing collective
and individual interests.
 To the extent that they have done so,
we can say they have some of the
elements of a moral sense.

Reprise: Is there a
natural moral sense?
Perhaps, if our natural moral sense is
our sense of altruism, i.e., our concern
for the well-being of others, whether
related or not.
 We share this sense with other
animals.
 The sense of altruism may ultimately
be an inheritance of evolution by
natural selection.

Humanity’s uniqueness

Superior strengths in
– Language

Plus a
– Cumulative knowledge base

Lead to more
– Self-consciousness
– Abstraction
– Absolutism