The Darwin Day Lecture 2018: The evolution of human morality

For the 2018 Darwin Day Lecture in central London, evolutionary psychologist Dr. Diana S Fleischman gave a stirring talk on the origins of human morality, the weaknesses of our evolved morality, and new horizons for the future human ethics.

She was chaired by theoretical physicist and Humanists UK Vice President Professor Jim Al-Khalili.

[staninjapan]

More interesting than I thought it would be.
I clicked it as it was a Darwin Day thing, but I am very glad that I did.
Thanks.

[lxalexxl]

This was an amazing talk. People need to update their "conventional knowledge" every once in a while. I've learned so many new things AND I'm left with a few concepts to think about.

[TheDavidlloydjones]

At 10:26 Haldane would jump in the lake to save two brothers or *Six* cousins. Six???
Eight.

[MFAutoloader]

I was an atheist for about the first 39 years of my life until i realised how smug, authoritarian and self righteous my fellow atheists were and it disgusted me.

[marcpadilla]

Love is wise, Hate is foolish. We are all responsible one way or the other.

[erictaylor]

30:50 Common sense tells us that two people witnessing an event will describe that event identically regardless of how they are moving relative to each other.
Nope, turns out, that is wrong.
Common sense tells us we can know the position and velocity of a particle at the same time.
Nope, sorry, wrong again
Common sense tells us that a particle like an electron has a specific location, even if we don't know it exactly.
Yep, this one is wrong as well.
Perhaps common sense is not as reliable as we think.

[chrisgibson]

A truly great and fascinating talk! Many thanks! :)

[vl.ca.]

Unfortunately, this speech is not about evolution of morality. Just chunks of definitions related to morality. This lecture/speech had no consistency and neither a deep of analysis of morality evolution.

[Ian.McKay.of.Glasgow]

This is the most insightful and thought-provoking lecture on morality that I have ever heard.

[james-r]

8:50 I don’t like how that slide is implying that evolution has consciously only wanted to produce modern humans.

31:10 Kill five people or one person on a train track, well I’d choose the five people, because five people who’re stupid enough to be on a train track, far less stupid people in the world than just the one.

50:38 empathy and kindness: she arbitrarily assumes that people don’t want more empathy or kindness. If I’ve just eaten a tub of my favourite ice cream, then was asked if I want another tub, I’d say “no, I don’t need any more ice cream” lol. Maybe people didn’t choose empathy and kindness, because they believe they already have enough of it.

[privatprivat]

Why do the smartest talks have the dumbest comments?

[paulbk]

German philosopher Immanuel Kant, founder of critical philosophy
Born — 22 April 1724, Died — 12 February 1804 (aged 79)
Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative (a form of "do onto others.."):
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) — “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”
Violation of Kant's categorical imperative is hypocrisy of the worse kind.

[HarryNicNicholas]

mother theresa is a good case in point of how misguided religion is on morality, it's generally accepted that she thought the way into heaven was for the people in her care to suffer as much as possible. i urge you to look her up, i am biased.

[erictaylor]

31:00 If you really want to stop the train, jump onto the tracks yourself. If you are unwilling to sacrifice your own life to save others, why should you sacrifice the life of another? If you are willing to sacrifice your life to save others, then sacrificing the life of another is unnecessary.

[KeithDraws]

Go to 5:38 to skip all the ego boosting of the nobodies.

[moeali]

Thank you for posting. Most informative. Great learning....

[elfootman]

Great lecture! Amazing how some people here still argue against rationality.

[syed]

I like the guy introducing this. Making philosophy and science not mundane. good for you.

[yahyamohammed]

And what is your view of the evolutionary debunking of morality argument(s) from Joyce, Steele, etc.?

[terrythompson]

Isn't morality really just a technology that rewards and encourages symbiotic reciprocal relationships while punishing and discouraging predatory and parasitic relationships? We need more of it