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Related Issues summarized here, followed by the book
Chapters 1-4 present an easy to read theory of ethical evolution.
There are web links to other writers on evolution at the bottom of the page.

The Evolution of Ethics attempts to construct a conceptual bridge between biology and human behavior by examining the cultural and biological feedback system that inspires the evolution of social rules. In theory, at the heart of developing ethical systems is a cybernetic process that arises between the interaction of biology and culture using the informational feedback between the two to further human adaptation and survival.

1  Ethics merges with science in cybernetic ethics. This book presents a credible theory of how the evolution of ethical systems can be linked to science and mathematics. Cybernetics in this context means informational feedback in dynamic systems that sustains or redirects a behavior. Cybernetics is an important building block of biological adaptation and a prior condition to its existence.

2. When the subject of ethics arises, reasonable people often ask, "who is to say what is right or wrong?" When ethical development is viewed as a science, it is not so much who's to say an action is morally right or wrong, but rather "what is to say an action is right or wrong," defined by inherent limitations of the physical and psychological worlds that make it impractical or imprudent to pursue certain behaviors, attitudes, or methods of reasoning regarding personal circumstances. Some of these limitations are illustrated in the evolution of traffic laws, street signs and stop lights which show how a system of law which came into being to minimize pain, suffering and death and to maximize societal efficiency, harmony and prosperity.

3. There is long-standing belief that all moral knowledge is inherent in the words of a language. This idea is reflected in the "is-ought dichotomy" of David Hume and the "naturalistic fallacy" of G.E. Moore. This thinking leads to the belief that human experience does not play an important role in the development of ethical language. For example, if millions of people are injured or killed by the excesses of drinking alcohol and driving an automobile one cannot reason by the formal logics of Hume and Moore that one "ought not" drink and drive because formal ethical reasoning stresses an analysis of the language, and not scientific facts or experience. In meta-ethical thinking, drinking while driving is neither right nor wrong, and how intoxication ever became a moral issue is beyond the reach of explanation. Meta-ethics significantly dominates formal ethical study, yet for the last two thousand years it has inspired little insight into the nature of morality. Meta-ethics has a polemical aspect to it in which it never quite answers anything while raising a whole host of new questions in the process that cannot be resolved. To some extent, the logics of formal ethics have built a "house of cards." As evolutionary science expands and becomes a more credible way to reason about biology and culture, the more pressure evolutionary science puts on these unstable philosophical reasoning's This theoretically leads to what has long been thought possible—a major paradigm shift in philosophical thinking. Once the study of ethics involves science, theoretical problems of the past such as solving the puzzle of first principles and relativity become easier to explain.

4. Morality can be described in terms of static or dynamic systems, and stable and unstable systems. The dynamics of morality involve behavior. When morality is described in dynamic terms of cybernetics, it becomes, in theory, the calculus that makes sense of the enormous complexity of morality. Calculus did for engineering what cybernetics, in theory, can do for ethical analysis. A large building has shifting loads that require its "moment" to be pinned down in an instant. Likewise, a moral scientist might determine the "ethical moment" of a given action or behavior. The social morality can be difficult to understand in static terms as opposed to being quantified into fine points of knowledge as the physical sciences are. An illustration of how to construct finer gradations of moral explanation are to be found at the following link       Notes on the scientific search for morality

   5. The foundation of ethical evolution can be shown to rest on reason rather than relativity. Human morality, and the ethical systems it gives rise to, are to some extent relative to time and place. However, there are deeper forces at work in ethical evolution than relativity. When the evolution of ethical systems becomes centered on cybernetic science it becomes easier to understand how first principles of ethics and moral and cultural relativity can coexist.   Notes on relativism & first principles

6. Cybernetic ethics does not necessarily clash with religious belief. For example, adultery to a religious person might seem "wrong" because it goes against the command of God. On the other hand, adultery might be reasoned to be "wrong" by some future ethical scientist from the viewpoint, that it violates the law of There may be an empirical element at the root of secular social morals, non-secular religions morals, social customs, and legal statutes that make a particular behaviorinherently right or wrong.     link to stable systems.

7. There has been considerable debate concerning the existence of an objective foundation of reason or fact supporting a theory of evolutionary ethics. In cybernetic ethics the visible existence of social feedback supports the idea that there is an objective foundation. Human beings are part of a larger biological system that like most systems seeks a high level of systemic efficiency in order to promote its survival. The evolution of laws and morals evidences the hand of efficiency at work sustaining the human race. The foundation of ethics is not some static entity or idea , rather it is a dynamic and changing phenomena. The answer to why there exists a compulsion to survive is not important in constructing a theory of ethics based on survival. The fact is that people prioritize their values consistently and over centuries of time along the lines of minimizing pain, suffering and death and maximizing peace, prosperity, and productivity, which evidences the cardinal value of survival guiding the destiny of human endeavor. defining survival

8. In the writings of many evolutionary theorists the moral referent is altruism. Here, altruism is the integrative term that joins ethics to biology. This is a difficult way to reason an ethical system because it raises more questions than it anaswers.    Link to altruism

Questions to ask your ethics professor click here

(The Book)

Preface to the Evolution of Ethics

    This book develops the idea that there is a rational basis for the existence of ethics. Such an approach is daunting because the idea of reason or rational causes at work in the formation of ethics has been seriously challenged since the eighteenth century Enlightenment. However, there have been developments in biology and cybernetics that lead to a comprehensive theory of morality in which the rational nature of ethics can more easily be explained. Not only can the rise of ethical systems be linked to biological concepts, but ethics can be tied to mathematical concepts as well by way of cybernetic science. When ethics and cybernetics are combined, the resulting theory turns on scientific principles instead of philosophical speculations.

    There are several important ideas linked to the emergence of ethical systems: first, that ethical systems evolve in response to the human need to survive in an environment where they are competing with many other organisms for scarce resources; second, that humans survive and flourish by efficiently using their resources and energies; and third, that the evolution of ethical systems is a function of an ongoing cybernetic process involving all humans, animals, and organisms.
Human experiences accumulate as a reservoir of knowledge, which influences the societal perception of which behaviors benefit people and which act counterproductive to their health and welfare. When people deviate from behaviors that are known to be productive, feedback arises that affects their lives in both subtle and obvious ways. Thus, the way in which people write laws and attach moral significance to certain behaviors is linked to a cybernetic process that maximizes human survival, minimizes social conflicts, and increases the meaningfulness of the human experience. Feedback that inspires change enhances the human ability to survive and to compete with other animals and organisms. This is important in the sense that some biologists believe that ninety-nine percent of all species that have ever existed are now extinct.

    In order to build a bridge between the biological world of organic struggles for survival and the moral world of right and wrong, a simplified explanation of the evolutionary process is presented. This is necessary to illustrate how survival inspires a cybernetic process leading to the rise of ethical systems. The resulting theory sounds similar to some of the ideas of Thomas Hobbes. Where the two systems differ greatly is that the evolution of ethical systems here is viewed as an extension of a biological process, grounded in cybernetic principles, whereas Hobbesian philosophy derives from traditional ethical thinking touching on linguistic and metaethical aspects of reasoning.   

    What is important to note is how conflicts and potential conflicts act as a form of cybernetic feedback to society that alerts people to make changes in the way they behave. Feedback is an essential ingredient in evolutionary growth. Traffic laws vividly illustrate how the forces of human survival and the need for the synchronization of many parts work.

    While the ideas of individual philosophers are not discussed directly, their relevance is implicit in the writing. Biological perspectives likewise do not address biological theory directly on a technical level. Books such as Living Systems, by James Grier Miller; The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins; and Mankind Evolving, by Theodosius Dobzhansky are more appropriate sources, in a field of many good books, for understanding biological phenomena. These three books illuminate the complexity of biological systems in a way that ultimately leads to ethical questions. For instance, the idea of incorporating the notion of organization and efficiency in ethical theory has its analog in Miller's living systems theory. Here it seems evident that successful organic strategies for survival have created extremely complex and efficient hierarchies of order in nature. The principles governing the evolution and survival of lower organisms seem much the same as the forces driving the development of moral systems. Living systems theory invites the question that if organic systems are so incredibly diverse and complex, why would the nature of moral systems be any different, suggesting that philosophical conundrums of the past regarding the nature of morality stem from underestimating the complexity of moral science.

    In Richard Dawkins' writings there are illustrations of how pervasive the struggle for survival is. Such struggle involves not only humans but lower organisms, all competing with each other for scarce resources. Dawkins' ideas are important in realizing that humans, after all, still act involuntarily on a biological level. Like it or not, struggles manifest in elegant and concealed forms have endured and proliferated to this day in human societies. Both Miller's and Dawkins' writings lend visual texture to the sense of complex systems uniting in cooperative strategies to further their mutual survival. The rise of ethical systems in this sense is a cooperative effort of humanity that has the effect of optimizing its energies and resources in an ever increasing dynamic of survival guided by cybernetic principles.

   Dobzhansky's work is crucial to understanding how human beings adapt to a hostile environment by changing the way their cultures are structured. The idea that human culture is an instrument of biological adaptation is central to perceiving how Dobzhansky, and those who followed him, were perhaps unknowingly the first to establish credible bridge points linking ethics with biology.
 

Foreword

    The Evolution of Ethics attempts to construct a conceptual bridge between biology and human behavior by examining the cultural and biological feedback system that inspires the evolution of social rules. In theory, at the heart of developing ethical systems is a cybernetic process that arises between the interaction of biology and culture using the informational feedback between the two to further human adaptation and survival.

    Living systems of all descriptions have evolved both cooperatively and competitively for more than a billion years. Since biological systems have been intertwined for so long, a change in one system can cause a change in many others. In theory, these changes disperse through the environment like waves generated by an object hitting the surface of a quiet pond. Biological interrelatedness extends to human social systems as well, thereby imposing limits upon what people can reasonably do. Human beings are not at liberty to do as they wish because personal actions often inspire consequent reactions and sometimes overreactions that need regulating by way of laws and morals. This regulation affects individuals as well as large groups. An example of this might be seen in the careless use of fluorocarbons that thin the ozone layer, allowing harmful radiation to reach the earth and threaten the survival of all humans and organisms. Such a dangerous situation forces humans to choose between doing what they freely wish to do (risking pain, suffering, and death in the process) or setting limits on their behavior. The demonstrable effects of pollutants on people appears to force the formation of laws and enlightened moral attitudes that discourage the practice of releasing dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere. These kinds of laws cannot be said to have emerged from some abstract philosophical theory of right and wrong. Instead, they appear to have evolved from real life situations in which human beings are forced to adapt to threatening circumstances in order to maintain their health and quality of life.

    Morality is sometimes viewed in a negative context because it is associated with self-serving political and religious causes. In spite of this fact, the imposition of rules in the main does not lower the quality of human life. To the contrary, carefully laid out rules have the greater potential to improve its quality. Broadly imposing guidelines through the promotion of statutory laws as well as moral, manner, and customary rule systems, redirects social priorities in an efficient way. In turn, there is an increase in societal organization and efficiency that enhances cultural peace, prosperity, and productivity. Social evolution in this light acts as an extension of the same biological processes observed in lower organisms where it appears that tight hierarchical organization and efficient survival strategies further the life of many types of organisms.

    In theory, nature provides human beings with the means to motivate themselves and create great things by giving them passion and sensitivity. At the same time, it appears to endow them with an extraordinary intelligence to limit the excesses of their emotions. Unfortunately, while people strive to be rational, their actions are still governed by strong emotions. When they respond to emotions that are a derivative of physiology, behavioral excesses inspiring a host of problems manifest themselves. When emotions run high, there needs to be some mechanism present to keep passions from getting out of hand and causing harm to people or the societies they have spent so many years building. In much the same way that circuit breakers in a house prevent an overloaded circuit from melting the wires and causing a fire, moral restraints naturally arise and intervene as reasons (or a reason) to break up the vicious circles of conflict that passions can produce. The emergence of moral laws and sentiments, shaping the course of history, is therefore an extension of human physiology that stabilizes relationships so that people grow and prosper instead of conflicting to the point of extinction.

Go to chapter 1 click here

Evolution and Ethics: An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Part 1

Evolution and Ethics: An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Part 2

Here is one of the better evolutionary ethics web sites. Dr. Corning presents an insightful and knowledgeable summary of important ideas concerning evolutionary ethics from the time of ancient Greece to the present. The arguments are very precise, abstracted and presented with few words, however his approach is unique and notable. This analysis was written in the course of reviewing the essays of other evolutionary ethics writers.(Part I) Peter A. Corning, Ph.D. Institute for the Study of Complex Systems. biographical info

The History of Cybernetics. The American Society for Cybernetics
This site is highly recommended   http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/history.htm

Early theories of ethics and cybernetics: Cybernetics & Human Knowing, from A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics & Cyber-Semiotics

The Biological Basis of Morality by Edward..O. Wilson

This link is an interesting philosophical synopsis
of biology and morality.
click here

 Professor Wilson hypotheses that scientifically breaking down the moral sentiments might lead to a more scientific knowledge of morality. To the contrary, in cybernetic ethics the linkage to science is not an analysis of the sentiments rather an analysis of a cybernetic process. The following quote from the Atlantic Monthly.

"Little wonder, then, that ethics is the most publicly contested of all philosophical enterprises. Or that political science, which at its foundation is primarily the study of applied ethics, is so frequently problematic. Neither is informed by anything that would be recognizable as authentic theory in the natural sciences. Both ethics and political science lack a foundation of verifiable knowledge of human nature sufficient to produce cause-and-effect predictions and sound judgments based on them. Surely closer attention must be paid to the deep springs of ethical behavior. The greatest void in knowledge for such a venture is the biology of moral sentiments. In time this subject can be understood, I believe, by paying attention to the following topics:

* The definition of moral sentiments, first by precise descriptions from experimental psychology and then by analysis of the underlying neural and endocrine responses.

* The genetics of moral sentiments, most easily approached through measurements of the heritability of the psychological and physiological processes of ethical behavior, and eventually, with difficulty, through identification of the prescribing genes.

* The development of moral sentiments as products of the interactions of genes and the environment. Research is most effective when conducted at two levels: the histories of ethical systems as part of the emergence of different cultures, and the cognitive development of individuals living in a variety of cultures. Such investigations are already well along in anthropology and psychology. In the future they will be augmented by contributions from biology.

* The deep history of moral sentiments -- why they exist in the first place. Presumably they contributed to survival and reproductive success during the long periods of prehistoric time in which they genetically evolved.

From a convergence of these several approaches the true origin and meaning of ethical behavior may come into focus. If so, a more certain measure can then be taken of the strength and flexibility of the epigenetic rules composing the various moral sentiments. From that knowledge it should be possible to adapt ancient moral sentiments more wisely to the swiftly changing conditions of modern life into which, willy-nilly and largely in ignorance, we have plunged."

It would seem that Wilson's sociobiology would be the definitive work touching on biology and ethics had he incorporated cybernetics. His sociobiology is so close to being the great work that it is.
Click here for Wilson's article
Also, comments on Wilson's scociobiology and ethics

Biology as a Moral Guide by Eric J. Winter, including E.O. Wilson's observations. click here

(Quote from the link) "It is indeed true that you cannot deduce moral claims (about) origins). However, using factual claims about origins, you can  give moral claims the only foundational claim they might possibly have." In cybernetic ethics, the science of cybernetics form a foundation from which you can deduce moral claims about origins. Certainly such an idea of moving from a factual "is" to a moral "ought"  or "ought not" goes against conventional philosophy. But, conventional ethical reasoning has not yet come to understand the power of cybernetics to explain complex systems. Review click here  Michael Ruse's recent book touching on evolution and morality  click here

Link to
Biology and the Foundation of Ethics. 
Cambridge University Press.  Cambridge.

Maienschein, Jane & Ruse, Michael (eds). 

There appears to be an impassable barrier between science and ethics.  Herbert Dingle (1946) has stated that this barrier exists because science is based on absolute certainty, while ethics has no general basis at all.  Science is also capable of advancement, where ethics is not because science can repair its mistakes through reason and experience. Ethics only collapses when its foundations are uprooted.  Because of this inefficiency regarding the understanding of ethics it is necessary that we observe and study moral behavior from a scientific perspective.  The understanding of ethics goes both ways though, in that morality needs to be looked at biologically and biologists need to explain their ethical views more philosophically. (link temporarily not working)

Arguments against Michael Ruse
Evolutionary Ethics: A Crack in the Foundation of Ethics?

Evolution and Ethics

The Evolution of Conscience, The Evolution of Moral Codes by C.D. Broad

A Short History of Evolutionary Ethics and its Critic by Paul Lawrence Faber

Evolution and Ethics by T. H. Huxley

Evolution and Ethics by Sir Arthur Keith

Evolution and Ethics by Edward Stein

The Correlation Between Evolution and Ethics by Adam Barbhart

Intervening in Evolution: Ethics and Actions by Paul R. Ehrlich

Evolutionary Ethics and Biologically Supportable Morality by Michael Byron

Doris Schroeder: Evolutionary Ethics. "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy"

Brief outline of the arguments from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Ethics and Evolution, MITECS abstracts

Evolutionary Theory and the Foundation of Moral Principles by Bart Voorzanger

Philosophy: Evolution and Ethics

Problems in deriving an ethical system  from science

Peter Singer Ethics in the Age of Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary ethics: history & critique ~ part I

Evolutionary ethics: Ruse & Sober ~ part II

Evolution and Ethics

The Great Debate: Philosophical Responses to Evolution

Evolution & Ethics, Huxley 1894

Monkey Morality, Gregory Koukl, derivation of the evolution of ethical systems

The Ethical Aspects of Evolution

Introduction to the Science of Ethics by Theodore De Laguna

Evolutionary Ethics Resource and Reference Material

The Philosophy of Biology: A selection of Readings by Tim Lewens

Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics

Links for Evolution and Philosophy

The History of Evolution

Links for Evolution and Philosophy

Evolutionary Ethics: Biology as a Moral Guide  By Eric J. Winter

The Naturalistic Fallacy

Bruce Thompson on the naturalistic fallacy

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

An overview of evolutionary ethics including the naturalistic fallacy and the is/ought dichotomy

The Naturalistic Fallacy & Paul Lawrence Faber

Hume & Moore "Resources in Ethics and Moral Philosophy

The Naturalistic Fallacy: The Logic of its Refutation

Comments on the Naturalistic Fallacy by Mortimer J. Adler Ph.D.

Problems in deriving an ethical system  from science

Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectivism, and Moral Cognition by William D. Casebeer

The Is-Ought Dichotomy

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The is/ought dichotomy

The is-ought Debate by Peter Singer

Is/Ought by Robert Bass

The Nature of Language and Logic by Douglas Glen Whitman

The is ought Problem by Gerhard Schurz

Remembering the is-ought Distinction by Linda A Nicolosi

Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectivism, and Moral
Cognition by William D. Casebeer

Naturalism & Non-naturalism

Moral Non-naturalism

Naturalism.org

Premises of Naturalism

Ethical Non-Naturalism

Naturalism & Non-naturalism in Metaethics

Paradigm Shift

The Process of Paradigm Shift by Michael Ray

Evolutionary Ethics: A Crack in the Foundation by John Mizzoni

Definitions

Good

Open Question Argument

Fact-value distinction

Links to the definition and history of Cybernetics

The History of Cybernetics. The American Society for Cybernetics.
This site is highly recommended
http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/history.htm

A conventional definition of cybernetics

Second-order definition of cybernetics including the mathematics of cybernetic systems. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Cybernetics-EPST.pdf

Definition from from Principa Cybernetica

Second-oreder cybernetics definition. Modern "second-order cybernetics" places emphasis on how the process of constructing models of the systems is influenced by those very systems, hence an elegant definition - "applied epistemology".

Ethics of Cybernetics by Kevin Warwick.
A new definition. Cybernetics here is defined as "The study of the interaction between man, machine, and animals."  Insert the name Kevin Warwick in the search box that appears to access this file. While the subject is not strictly on ethics this definition seems appropriate in the context of cybernetic ethics.

Norbert Wiener the father of cybernetics

What is Cybernetics? American Society for Cybernetics

Behavioral Cybernetics

Cybernetics and the Social Behavior Sciences by Gregory Bateson

Cybernetics and behaviors, Judy Lombardi

Behavior and Ethics

Evolutionary Cybernetics

Evolutionary Cybernetics, Principa Cybernetica Web

Evolutionary systems and cybernetics

Evolutionary Ethics: Principa Cybernetic Web

Cybernetics and System Dynamics, Calresco

Cybernetics & Ecology

Miscellaneous Cybernetics

Bacterial Cybernetics Bacterial Wisdom: The general conclusion we draw from such examples, the implications to
evolutionary theory and even the implications to philosophy, are presented in the paper Bacterial Wisdom, Gödel's
Theorem and Creative Genomic Webs.

Cybernetics and Human Knowing A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics & Cyber-Semiotics

Soziale Systeme Heinz von Foerster  http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/sozsys/pdf/glanville.pdf

Cybernetics — What?  http://www.pangaro.com/designsummit/

Social Engineering

Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another  by Philip Ball. An inspiring history of ideas searching for the mathematics of social order.

Formal and Informal Fallacies

Various fallacies

Questionable cause fallacies

Common argument fallacies

Ethics and Mathematics

Mathematics For Ethics

Mathematics and philosophy

Elegant nonsense in math similar to formalism in ethics

"applied epistemology".

A Review of Ethics and Ethical Terminology

Where do ethics come from? Paul R. Ehrlich

Ethics: survey and observations an intro to evolutionary biology by Anthony Aaby

A fun, but not related theory: The Idle Theory of Evolution by Chris Davis

Evolutionary Biology

Introduction to Evolutionary Biology By Chris Colby

Ethics Web Sites

CalResco Ethics and Self-orgaizing systems

Issues in evolution
http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/index.html

Evolution, Behavior & Genetics

Evolution and Human Behavior Journal

Evolution and Behavior Search Engines

Behavior and the General Evolutionary Process by William M Baum Includes a discussion of informational feedback in genetic and biological systems.

Visceral Morality (text link)

Objective Morality  by Robin Allot  "...one can see why emotions were at the orgin of the developement of morality..."

In Defence of a Dialectical Ethic Beyond Postmodern Morality by
Mark Mason 

Here Visceral Morality conflicts with Ethical Formalism
Moral Judgements by Peter B. Lloyd, University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education.

A Critique of the Pragmatic Assigning of Monetary Values to Ecological Goods and Services by By Kate Farall  This is a pdf. Look for the binocular icon in the upper right corner, click and enter the search term visceral morality. Here, evolutionary economics merges into evolutionary ethics.

Books on Evolution

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/KVC/evolphi.htm
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/KVC/evolphi.htm

Ethics Sites

Internet Ethics Library

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The Evolution of Ethics: An Introduction to Cybernetic Ethics Soft cover edition ISBN 0-9610450-0-0 $11.65.

keywNotes: ords: evolutionary ethics, A theroy of ethical evolution, A theory od genetics and ethics, Additions to the text by Sarah Bromberg April 18, 2004 at 12:48 PM Send this version out for editing. Check onther links not part of the book for errors.

unedited notes on first principles and ethical relatity

The Evolution of Ethics