This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Slurink, P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Paradox and Tragedy in Human Morality

Traditional ethics has established itself as an independent disci pline by postulating a "good" independent of all particular desires. It has been assumed that this "good" was something beyond nature, and that man had the capacity to reach out for it by transcending his natural incli nations. In this article, the traditional picture of morality is confronted with modern evolutionary biology. It is shown that goal-directedness, choice, and social behavior can be accounted for in a naturalistic frame work. The purport of concepts like free will, good, and the meaning of life, however, changes dramatically. Specifically, our tendency to objectify values, to postulate an absolute good and an ultimate meaning of life, is unmasked as a strategy of mental territoriality which reveals us as typical participators in the struggle for existence.

International Political Science Review, Vol. 15, No. 4, 347-378 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/019251219401500403


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?