Switch to: Citations

Add references

You must login to add references.
  1. The Biology of Moral Systems.Richard D. Alexander - 1987 - Aldine de Gruyter.
    Despite wide acceptance that the attributes of living creatures have appeared through a cumulative evolutionary process guided chiefly by natural selection, many human activities have seemed analytically inaccessible through such an approach. Prominent evolutionary biologists, for example, have described morality as contrary to the direction of biological evolution, and moral philosophers rarely regard evolution as relevant to their discussions. -/- The Biology of Moral Systems adopts the position that moral questions arise out of conflicts of interest, and that moral systems (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   443 citations  
  • The Evolution of Cooperation.Robert M. Axelrod - 1984 - Basic Books.
    The 'Evolution of Cooperation' addresses a simple yet age-old question; If living things evolve through competition, how can cooperation ever emerge? Despite the abundant evidence of cooperation all around us, there existed no purely naturalistic answer to this question until 1979, when Robert Axelrod famously ran a computer tournament featuring a standard game-theory exercise called The Prisoner's Dilemma. To everyone's surprise, the program that won the tournament, named Tit for Tat, was not only the simplest but the most "cooperative" entrant. (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   958 citations  
  • The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.Robert L. Trivers - 1971 - Quarterly Review of Biology 46 (1):35-57.
    A model is presented to account for the natural selection of what is termed reciprocally altruistic behavior. The model shows how selection can operate -against the cheater (non-reciprocator) in the system. Three instances of altruistic behavior are discussed, the evolution of which the model can explain: (1) behavior involved in cleaning symbioses; (2) warning cries in birds: and (3) human reciprocal altruism. Regarding human reciprocal altruism, it is shown that the details of the psychological system that regulates this altruism can (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   699 citations  
  • A treatise of human nature.David Hume & D. G. C. Macnabb (eds.) - 1739 - Oxford,: Clarendon press.
    One of Hume's most well-known works and a masterpiece of philosophy, A Treatise of Human Nature is indubitably worth taking the time to read.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   896 citations  
  • (2 other versions)A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects.David Hume (ed.) - 1738 - Cleveland,: Oxford University Press.
    A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume's comprehensive attempt to base philosophy on a new, observationally grounded study of human nature, is one of the most important texts in Western philosophy. It is also the focal point of current attempts to understand 18th-century western philosophy. The Treatise addresses many of the most fundamental philosophical issues: causation, existence, freedom and necessity, and morality. The volume also includes Humes own abstract of the Treatise, a substantial introduction, extensive annotations, a glossary, a comprehensive (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   816 citations  
  • Critical Commentary on Unto Others.David Sloan Wilson & Elliott Sober - 2002 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (3):697-701.
    Altruism has both an evolutionary and a psychological meaning. As the term is used in evolutionary theory, a trait is deemed altruistic if it reduces the fitness of the actor and enhances the fitness of someone else. In its psychological sense, the thesis that we have altruistic ultimate motives asserts that we care about the welfare of others, not just as a means of enhancing our own well-being, but as an end in itself. In Unto Others (hereafter UO), we consider (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   61 citations  
  • Good natured: the origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals.Frans de Waal - 1996 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
    Waal shows how ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   197 citations  
  • (2 other versions)Ethical Relativity.Edward Westermarck - 1932 - Philosophy 8 (29):111-112.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   18 citations  
  • (2 other versions)The evolution of altruistic punishment.Robert Boyd, Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles, Peter Richerson & J. - 2003 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100 (6):3531-3535.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   88 citations  
  • The Dynamics of Rational Deliberation.Brian Skyrms - 1990 - Harvard University Press.
    Brian Skyrms constructs a theory of "dynamic deliberation" and uses it to investigate rational decision-making in cases of strategic interaction. This illuminating book will be of great interest to all those in many disciplines who use decision theory and game theory to study human behavior and thought. Skyrms begins by discussing the Bayesian theory of individual rational decision and the classical theory of games, which at first glance seem antithetical in the criteria used for determining action. In his effort to (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   138 citations  
  • Gossip and other aspects of language as group-level adaptations.David Sloane Wilson, Carolyn Wilczynski, Alexandra Wells & Laura Weiser - 2000 - In Celia Heyes & Ludwig Huber (eds.), The Evolution of Cognition. MIT Press.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  • Ethical Relativity.Edvard Alexander Westermarck - 1932 - Westport, Conn.,: Routledge.
    First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   15 citations  
  • Anthropology and ethics.May M. Edel - 1959 - Cleveland,: Press of Case Western Reserve University. Edited by Abraham Edel.
    This book presents the results of an experiment in interdisciplinary collaboration to clarify theories of morality and anthropology and philosophy, showing how each may be enriched by borrowing from the other. Pooling the resources and methods of their respective fields-anthropology and philosophy-May and Abraham Edel examine the wide range of moral differences in the world "to establish 'coordinates' for the more systematic mapping of particular moralities, to explore more explicitly the relations of morality to cultural patterns and social processes, and (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  • Norms, discussion, and ritual: Evolutionary puzzles.Allan Gibbard - 1990 - Ethics 100 (4):787-802.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  • Altruistic Punishment in Humans.Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter - 2002 - Nature 415 (6868):137--140.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   266 citations  
  • Anthropology and Ethics.Mayand Abraham Edel - 1959 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 17 (4):540-541.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Diversity and homogeneity in world societies.Erika Bourguignon - 1973 - [New Haven, Conn.]: HRAF Press. Edited by Lenora Greenbaum Ucko & George Peter Murdock.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations