No. 76 (2026): Número en curso
Articles

On Dennett’s Path: A Genealogy of Morality

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  • Antoni Gomila
Antoni Gomila University of the Balearic Islands image/svg+xml

Published 2026-05-20

How to Cite

Gomila, A. (2026). On Dennett’s Path: A Genealogy of Morality. Tópicos, Revista De Filosofía, 76, 67-85. https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v760.3239

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Abstract

In this paper I discuss the final two chapters of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea devoted to the evolution of morality and offer a summarized version of the genealogy of morality that I have developed in recent work, in part as a response to the shortcomings identified in Dennett’s proposal. Regarding chapter 16 of Dennet’s book, I argue that one can go beyond his approach and offer an evolutionary explanation of the origin and evolution of morality. Regarding chapter 17, I point out the moral non-specificity of his proposal for a “moral first aid manual”, which leads to the necessary characterization of the scope of morality. In the third section it is argued that this genealogy of morality offers a way to fulfill Dennett’s basic goal of an evolutionary account of morality. This proposal does not create a gap between biological evolution and cultural evolution as two alternative processes, as Dennett and memetics assumed, but rather integrates them through the process of individual development, by which each new human biological individual is culturally constituted.

Keywords

  • morality,
  • cultural evolution,
  • Dennett,
  • genealogy of morals,
  • memetics,
  • moral motivation,
  • moralization,
  • second-person perspective
    • ...More
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