Human Phenotypic Morality and the Biological Basis for Knowing Good

Abstract

Co‐creating knowledge takes a new approach to human phenotypic morality as a biologically based, human lineage specific (HLS) trait. Authors from very different backgrounds (anthropology and biology, on the one hand, and astronomy, philosophy, and theology, on the other) first review research on the nature and origins of morality using the social brain network, and studies of individuals who cannot “know good” or think morally because of brain dysfunction. They find these models helpful but insufficient, and turn to paleoanthropology, cognitive science, and neuroscience to understand human moral capacity and its origins long ago, in the genus Homo. An unusual narrative capturing “morality in action” takes the reader back 900,000 years, and then the authors analyze the essential features of moral thinking and behavior as expressed by early and later species on our lineage. In what has primarily been the province of philosophers to date, the authors’ morality model is presented for further scientific testing.

Evolution of Religious Capacity in the Genus Homo: Trait Complexity in Action Through Compassion

“…It is not until the later stages of hominin evolution, in which enhanced working memory, external storage of information, visuospatial reckoning with expanded frontal and parietal lobes, and the executive functions of planning and decision making, together allow the emergence of theologically based religious capacity and congruent capabilities such as compassion. If it is true, as we have proposed, that Homo erectus had a rudimentary moral capacity (Rappaport and Corbally ; ), then the species also had glimmers of these emerging higher level functions. Still, they were not fully developed until Homo sapiens .…”

“…In our teaching tool, the neurologically enabled and culturally based action in our “Story of Bo” (an evolved descendant of the Bo appearing as a Homo erectus youth in Rappaport and Corbally ) frames phenotypic expression of the human trait of religious capacity, now and in the past. This teaching tool is presented as fiction because of two unavoidable facts: (1) We do not have time machines and cannot conduct field research among early humans, and (2) we conclude that compassion has a cognitive evolutionary history because it exists among modern humans, with historical examples stretching back into antiquity.…”

Evolution of Religious Capacity in the Genus Homo: Origins and Building Blocks

“…Again, because the sequence of human cognitive evolution has emerged as a major issue, it is a central topic of the second article. We build toward that in the first article, and make good use of earlier articles in Zygon (Rappaport and Corbally ; ; ). Together, they place a rudimentary moral capacity at around 1–1.5 million years ago with Homo erectus .…”

“…Generation length would have profound effects on the human lineage that eventually emerged, including on moral (Rappaport and Corbally ; ) and religious capacities. Longevity is an unusual biological trait, and a well‐accepted Human Lineage Specific trait that involves an elongated developmental trajectory, births of individuals in increasingly immature states, and in this way, the emergence of lengthy and strong social and emotional bonds between individuals.…”

“…There is rarely anything completely new. In fact, our model for a rudimentary morality places its emergence at the time of Homo erectus , after that species learned to control fire and a learning context called the “Human Hearth” developed 1–1.5 million years ago (Rappaport and Corbally ; ). We see the human capacities for moral and religious thinking as separate, but related in their expression and application in human social life.…”