The Ethical Project

The argument defended in this book is fundamentally simple. If we are basically fair-minded and moral, and if we treat one another in accordance with the requirements of mutuality and reciprocity, then our lives will be improved and there will be more social goods available for everybody. That means the shared choice of the moral life style will have consequences for natural selection. The move toward a moral life style will contribute to the evolutionary "fitness" of the organisms which exhibit it. Therefore we can expect a general cultural evolution toward morality over time, and we can explain the progress that has been made through history by reference to the non-zero-sum consequences of these choices.This is virtually the same argument made by Robert Wright in his book, "Non-Zero." But Kitcher's book is a much more compact and easier-to-read than is Wright.s'

A serious work which lays out a secular ethic. When a book helps me clarify my thinking on an important subject, I have to rate that highly. Though clearly written, it is a work of careful and detailed thought, which at times was tedious for me. But definitely worth the effort.

I was very disappointed in this book. It is based entirely on speculation, except for the information that the author got from Christopher Boehm, whose book, Moral Origins, I very strongly recommend.