Philip Kitcher suggests that “ethics” is a crucial human cultural technology

Philip Kitcher on the Australian Broadcasting Company “Our Ethical Progress Hangs on Knowing Our Ethical Past”

Although this is just a hypothesis, it is a really interesting one. I like the idea that “cultural tinkering” with ethical rules was necessary to find sets that led to stable social collaboration. This makes studying the commonalities as well as the differences between current-day ethical systems (a “comparative method”) crucial to understanding how these systems evolve.

I really appreciate the practical use of evolutionary principles advocated by Kitcher!