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Are moral norms rooted in instincts? The sibling incest taboo as a case study
Biology & Philosophy ( IF 2.5 ) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 , DOI: 10.1007/s10539-020-09764-0
Nathan Cofnas

According to Westermarck’s widely accepted explanation of the incest taboo, cultural prohibitions on sibling sex are rooted in an evolved biological disposition to feel sexual aversion toward our childhood coresidents. Bernard Williams posed the “representation problem” for Westermarck’s theory: the content of the hypothesized instinct (avoid sex with childhood coresidents) is different from the content of the incest taboo (avoid sex with siblings)—thus the former cannot be causally responsible for the latter. Arthur Wolf posed the related “moralization problem”: the instinct concerns personal behavior whereas the prohibition concerns everyone. This paper reviews possible ways of defending Westermarck’s theory from the representation and moralization problems, and concludes that the theory is untenable. A recent study purports to support Westermarck’s account by showing that unrelated children raised in the same peer groups on kibbutzim feel sexual aversion toward each other and morally oppose third-party intra-peer-group sex, but this study has been misinterpreted. I argue that the representation and moralization problems are general problems that could potentially undermine many popular evolutionary explanations of social/moral norms. The cultural evolution of morality is not tightly constrained by our biological endowment in the way some philosophers and evolutionary psychologists believe.

中文翻译:

道德规范是否植根于本能?以兄弟姐妹乱伦禁忌为例

根据韦斯特马克对乱伦禁忌的广泛接受的解释,对兄弟姐妹性行为的文化禁令植根于一种进化的生物学倾向,即对我们童年的同居者产生性厌恶。伯纳德·威廉姆斯为韦斯特马克的理论提出了“表征问题”:假设本能(避免与童年同居者发生性关系)的内容与乱伦禁忌(避免与兄弟姐妹发生性关系)的内容不同——因此前者不能对后者。Arthur Wolf 提出了相关的“道德化问题”:本能涉及个人行为,而禁令涉及每个人。本文从表征和道德化问题中回顾了为韦斯特马克理论辩护的可能方式,并得出结论,该理论是站不住脚的。最近的一项研究旨在支持韦斯特马克的说法,表明在基布兹的同龄人群体中长大的无关儿童会感到对彼此的性厌恶,并在道德上反对第三方同龄人群体内的性行为,但这项研究被误解了。我认为代表性和道德化问题是普遍问题,可能会破坏许多流行的社会/道德规范的进化解释。道德的文化进化并不像某些哲学家和进化心理学家所认为的那样受到我们的生物禀赋的严格约束。我认为代表性和道德化问题是普遍问题,可能会破坏许多流行的社会/道德规范的进化解释。道德的文化进化并不像某些哲学家和进化心理学家所认为的那样受到我们的生物禀赋的严格约束。我认为代表性和道德化问题是普遍问题,可能会破坏许多流行的社会/道德规范的进化解释。道德的文化进化并不像某些哲学家和进化心理学家所认为的那样受到我们的生物禀赋的严格约束。
更新日期:2020-08-25
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