We have ways to assess our scientific beliefs. But what about our moral convictions? The German philosopher Hanno Sauer argues that morality—that body of judgments about good and evil, the practices that reflect those judgments, and the blame, guilt, and punishment that sustain them—hasn’t always existed. That’s why it had to be invented, rather than discovered. And the story of the invention of morality is really the story of the evolution of humanity.
In his new book, Sauer walks through distinct stages of human evolution to trace the invention of morality, drawing on research—some of it now well known—from evolutionary biology, game theory, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and big-picture history. His approach leads him to conclude that there are “universal moral values that all people share with each other.” Distracted by our seeming divisions, he writes, we can forget the fundamentals: “We all share the same history of morality; our political disagreements are often shallow; underneath them are deep-seated, universal moral values that all people share with each other, and that can be the basis for a new understanding.” At the link Read about the argument that our sense of right and wrong is an evolutionary byproduct, and why there may be cause for optimism in that: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/man1lB
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