Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:37:11.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Baselines for human morality should include species typicality, inheritances, culture, practice, and ecological attachment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2019

Darcia Narvaez Open the ORCID record for Darcia Narvaez [Opens in a new window]
Darcia Narvaez*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. [email protected]://www3.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Empirical studies involve WEIRD (Western, European, industrialized, rich, democratic) but also un-nested (raised outside humanity's evolved nest) and underdeveloped participants. Assessing human moral potential needs to integrate a transdisciplinary approach to understanding species typicality and baselines, relevant evolutionary inheritances beyond genes, assessment of cultures and practices that foster (or not) virtue, and ecological morality. Human moral reason (nous) emerges from all of these.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e163
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arain, M., Haque, M., Johal, L., Mathur, P., Nel, W., Rais, A., Sandhu, R. & Sharma, S. (2013) Maturation of the adolescent brain. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 9:449–61.Google Scholar
Cajete, G. (2000) Native science: Natural laws of interdependence. Clear Light.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1871/1981) The descent of man. Princeton University Press. (Original work published in 1871.)Google Scholar
Deloria, V. (2006) The world we used to live in. Fulcrum.Google Scholar
Descola, P. (2013) Beyond nature and culture, trans. Lloyd, J.. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Four Arrows (2016) Point of departure: Returning to our more authentic, worldview for education and survival. Information Age.Google Scholar
Gómez-Robles, A., Hopkins, W. D., Schapiro, S. J. & Sherwood, C. C. (2015) Relaxed genetic control of cortical organization in human brains compared with chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 12:14799–804. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512646112.Google Scholar
Greenough, W. & Black, J. (1992) Induction of brain structure by experience: Substrate for cognitive development. In: Minnesota symposia on child psychology, vol. 24: Developmental behavioral neuroscience, ed. Gunnar, M. R. & Nelson, C. A., pp.155–200. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33(2–3):61–83.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S. & Lamb, M. E. (2005) Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evolutionary, developmental and cultural perspectives. Aldine.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. (2005) On the social relations of the hunter-gatherer band. In: The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers, ed. Lee, R. B. & Daly, R., pp. 399–410. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2014) Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. Pachauri, R. K. & Meyer, L. A. (core writing team). IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M. J. (2005) Evolution in four dimensions: Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kidner, D. W. (2001) Nature and psyche: Radical environmentalism and the politics of subjectivity. State University of New York.Google Scholar
Knudsen, E. I. (2004) Sensitive periods in the development of the brain and behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16(8):1412–25.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G. (2002) Mutually responsive orientation between mothers and their young children: A context for the early development of conscience. Current Directions in Psychological Science 11(6):191–95. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00198.Google Scholar
Kolbert, E. (2014) The sixth extinction: An unnatural history. Holt.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1999) Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. (1979) The !Kung San: Men, women, and work in a foraging community. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. & Daly, R., eds. (2005) The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R. & Heim, C. (2009) Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10(6):434–45.Google Scholar
May, J. (2018) Regard for reason in the moral mind. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGilchrist, I. (2009) The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the western world. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Merchant, C. (2003) Reinventing Eden: The fate of nature in Western culture. Routledge.Google Scholar
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Island.Google Scholar
Muller, J. Z. (2018) The tyranny of metrics. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2010) Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning. Perspectives on Psychological Science 5(2):163–81.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2013) The 99% – Development and socialization within an evolutionary context: Growing up to become “a good and useful human being.” In: War, peace and human nature: The convergence of evolutionary and cultural views, ed. Fry, D., pp. 643–72. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2014) Neurobiology and the development of human morality: Evolution, culture and wisdom. Norton.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2016a) Embodied morality: Protectionism, engagement and imagination. Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2016b) Kohlberg Memorial Lecture 2015: Revitalizing human virtue by restoring organic morality. Journal of Moral Education 45(3):223–38.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2017) Are we losing it? Darwin's moral sense and the importance of early experience. In: Routledge handbook of evolution and philosophy, ed. Joyce, R., pp. 322–32. Routledge.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D., ed. (2018a) Basic needs, wellbeing and morality: Fulfilling human potential. Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. (2018b) Ethogenesis: Evolution, early experience and moral becoming. In: The atlas of moral psychology, ed. Graham, J. & Gray, K., pp. 451–64. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D., Four Arrows, Halton, E., Collier, B. & Enderle, G., eds. (2019) Indigenous sustainable wisdom: First Nation know-how for global flourishing. Lang.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Wang, L., Brooks, J., Lefever, J., Cheng, A. & Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect (2013a) The evolved development niche: Longitudinal effects of caregiving practices on early childhood psychosocial development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 28(4):759–73. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.07.003.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A. & Gleason, T., eds. (2013b) Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D., Wang, L. & Cheng, A. (2016) The evolved developmental niche in childhood: Relation to adult psychopathology and morality. Applied Developmental Science 20(4):294–309. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1128835.Google Scholar
Narvaez, D. & Witherington, D. (2018) Getting to baselines for human nature, development and wellbeing. Archives of Scientific Psychology 6(1):205–13.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. K. (2008) Original instructions: Indigenous teachings for a sustainable future. Bear.Google Scholar
Overton, W. F. (2013) A new paradigm for developmental science: Relationism and relational-developmental-systems. Applied Developmental Science 17(2):94–107.Google Scholar
Oyama, S., Griffiths, P. E. & Gray, R. D. (2001) Cycles of contingency: Developmental systems and evolution. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (2001) The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time, 2nd ed. Beacon.Google Scholar
Rest, J. R., Narvaez, D., Bebeau, M. & Thoma, S. (1999) Postconventional moral thinking: A neo-Kohlbergian approach. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ross, R. (2006) Returning to the teachings: Exploring aboriginal justice. Penguin Canada.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003a) Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. Norton.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003b) Affect regulation and the repair of the self. Norton.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2017) All our sons: The developmental neurobiology and neuroendocrinology of boys at risk. Infant Mental Health Journal 38(1):15–52. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21616.Google Scholar
Shonkoff, J. P. & Phillips, D. A., eds. (2000) From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. (2012) Whither the preconventional child? Toward a life-span moral development theory. Child Development Perspectives 6:423–29.Google Scholar
Trevathan, W. R. (2011) Human birth: An evolutionary perspective, 2nd ed. Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Turnbull, C. M. (1984) The human cycle. Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
WindEagle & RainbowHawk (2003) Heart seeds: A message from the ancestors. Beaver's Pond.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W., Winnicott, C., Shepherd, R. & Davis, M. (1989) Psycho-analytic explorations. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar