进化与伦理

达尔文不仅凭借其《物种起源》奠定了以个体自然选择论为核心内容的进化论,而且通过《人类的由来》提供了一种爱和同情的理论,《人类的由来》和《物种起源》共同构成了达尔文进化论的完整内容,达尔文把恩爱、同情心等社会性本能当作人的道德组成的最初的原则,但他不能从基因层面思考利他主义的问题,当代进化伦理学立足于基因选择来说明利他主义现象,基因进化克服了利他主义和利己主义的二元分裂。

Evolution and ethics

Charles Darwin developed the Theory of Evolution and wrote about his ideas in the book On the Origin of Species.In his another major work on evolutionary theory The Descent of Man,and Selection in Relation to Sex,he put forward the theory of love and empathy.In the two books,Darwin stated that such social instincts of humanity as affection and empathy were the basic principles of the human morals.Regardless of his brilliance,Darwin failed to ponder over the issue of altruism from the genetic perspective.By contrast,the contemporary evolutionary ethics discusses the issue of altruism from the perspective of genetic selection,which has closed the gap between altruism and egoism.