Origin, evolution and maintenance of moral behavior

Abstract

As our knowledge of the social behavior in primates advances, the likelihood that moral behavior may have evolutionary basis also increases. This has been disputed by some anthropologists and social scientists who believe that moral behavior arose during the rise of civilization and that it evolved through learning. Nevertheless, there are signs of moral behavior in apes, particularly among chimpanzees and bonobos, who are closely related to humans and who live in small social groups made up by interacting individuals. The moral rules observed by their members reduce conflict and intensify social bonds. Moral behavior results from mutations whose bearers are positively selected due to their enhanced interaction abilities and capacity of building long lasting social bonds. To some philosophers, cultural anthropologists and social scientists, moral behavior is a product of civilization, hence an attribute inherent to human beings. Nietzsche traces the concepts of good and evil back to the influence of clerical and noblemen who exerted their power on the ignorant populus. The latter were bad and the former, good. Scientists and philosophers who admit that moral behavior is intrinsic to mankind have the fully evolved human species as their starting point; they will study moral behavior in historical time but ignore the influence of our evolutionary history.