Field Museum Spring Systematics Symposium; Chicago, IllinoisMay 1990

理解和理解道德判断的意义对所有公民都是最重要的。然而，科学界特别感兴趣的问题是，伦理与进化之间是否存在关系，以及进化伦理体系是否是一个合理的分析主题。这些问题是由赫伯·斯宾塞（Herber Spencer）在19世纪70年代的研究中提出的，过去的答案要么是肯定的，要么是强烈反对的。进化伦理学作为社会达尔文主义在19世纪末和20世纪初蓬勃发展。现在，可能是受到社会生物学和相关争议的加强，人们对进化伦理学的可能性重新产生了兴趣，并进行了重新审视。目前，对进化伦理的严格（和感性）反思跨越了政治和女权主义立场。一方面，存在着一种基于进化生物学的进化的、保守的政治观点，这种观点支持了社会生物学的保守观点，另一方面，社会学家甚至共产主义者都声称有一种进化的道德基础。研讨会将分析对进化伦理学的立场，指出所有解释的困难，并争论进化伦理学的伦理分析的合法性。

The understanding and meaning of ethical judgements are of greatest importance to all citizens. Questions of particular interest to the scientific community, however are whether there is a relation between ethics and evolution and whether a system of evolutionary ethics is a legitimate subject of analysis. These questions, initiated by Herber Spencer's work in the 1870's, have been answered in the past either in the positive, or vehemently opposed. Evolutionary ethics blossomed as Social Darwinism in the later part of the nineteenth and the beginnings of the twentieth centuries. Now, probably strengthened by sociobiology and the associated controversies, there is a renewed interest in, and a reexamination of, the possibilities of evolutionary ethics. Presently a rigorous (and emotional) rethinking of evolutionary ethics cuts across political and feminist positions. On the one hand there exists an evolutionary, conservative political view based on evolutionary biology which lends itself to support the conservative views of sociobiology, and on the other hand sociologists and even communists have claimed an evolutionary moral ground. The symposium will analyze the position taken on evolutionary ethics, point out the difficulties with all interpretations, and argue for and against the legitimacy of ethical analysis of evolutionary ethics.