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Of Facts and Values: A Bio-political Perspective

Bio-political philosophy can today confront the perennial questions of philosophy in the light of a wide range of evidence from the natural sciences. Observation seems to verify that humans are normative animals; although this characteristic of our nature is often traced to ratio nality, a reconsideration of Hume's critique in the light of biology suggests that the ultimate origin of our "normativeness" is far more primordial and less calculated. This suggests that the content of human value systems might be more constant and consistent than they at first appear. I bluntly contend that the Ten Commandments are an example of a moral regimen, not of how human believers can win salvation and eternal life, but rather of how human beings have thus far successfully guaranteed their earthly existence. In short, what we call our human normative systems spring from that same selective biology that sees us as the evolved creatures we are today. They are at one and the same time a cause and an effect of our human condition.

International Political Science Review, Vol. 15, No. 4, 327-345 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/019251219401500402


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