Evolutionary ethics and adaptive atheism

Abstract

In Evolution Science and Ethics in the Third Millennium (2018), whose key arguments are summa­rized in the target article above, Cliquet and Avramov offer an exacting and extensive analysis of the ethical and ecological challenges and psychological and political choices ahead for the human species. They bravely tackle a host of touchy issues and, in light of empirical findings and theoretical developments within a wide variety of scientific disciplines, courageously offer their own construc­tive proposals. Some of the latter (such as those dealing with eugenics and euthenics) will no doubt generate fresh anxiety about genetic and social engineering, while others (such as those dealing with modernization and hominization) will fuel worries about scientism or elitism. Although these con­cerns should lead us to be cautious, the authors remind us that we ought to be at least as concerned about ways in which the well-being of future generations could be threatened by our failure to act and our unwillingness to contest maladaptive cognitive and coalitional biases.