The Study Of Michael Tomasello’s Thought On Evolutionary Ethics

Michael Tomasello is an important contemporary western evolutionary ethicist,whose thoughts are very comprehensive and inclusive,representing the latest achievements of the development of contemporary evolutionary ethics.The interdependence hypothesis is the core of Tomasello’s evolutionary ethics.According to the hypothesis,changes in the natural environment had gradually driven early human beings start to cooperate and to be interdepend on each other for survival.In the process,a unique psychological cognition,social interaction and self-regulation of human beings had been developed synthetically,and eventually formed the basis of human morality.From an interdependence point of view the two concepts i.e.mutualism and reciprocity merged into each other.Tomasello also believes that moral evolution can be divided into two stages.Due to the difference of ecological environment and community scale,the forms of cooperation between the two stages also differ,resulting in two forms of morality,namely the "second person morality"and the "’objective’ morality".The former forms a basis of the development of the latter,but there are systematic differences between the two.In Tomasello’s view,second-person morality emerged from small-scale cooperations of early humans.In order to better coordinate cooperative activities,early humans developed common attention and intention,and each "I" formed the concept of "we" in the face-to-face cooperative communication between "I" and "I".It was recognized which role each partner played in a cooperative activity would bemore conducive to success,and hence,a "role ideal" for shared commitment was evolved.Tomasello regards this kind of role ideal as the original standard of society,because it requires equally to behaviors of both parties in cooperation,which refers ass "fair".On this basis,early humans realized that they and their partners were equal and respected each other in cooperation,and that individuals could constantly adjust their behaviors in order to better serve the realization of "our" common goals.Those basic elements constitute the second-person morality.The ecological background of the emergence of "objective" morality is different from that of the second person morality.Tomasello believes that about 150,000 years ago,severer natural conditions and population pressures had forced humans to cooperate on a larger scale,relying on each other as groups and tribes.Under this premise,the form of morality also gradually changed from the second person morality to "objective" morality.Tomasello pointed out that the tribal group of modern human beings is itself a cultural form,and group members form collective intentionality motivation in order to complete the recognition of each other’s identity and support for the group.This collective intentionality gradually develops into cultural customs,norms and institutions on the basis of group culture.At this stage,the "we" in the second person morality has been expanded to the "we" as a collective,and the new role ideal of observing cultural customs,institutions and norms has also been formed.Tomasello believes that this new role ideal is "objective" normative,not only because it can be applied to all group members,but also gives them a sense of obligation.It is the group rationality based on the sense of obligation that promotes the "objective"morality of culture in the new form of getting along with partners.Tomasello’s thoughts on evolutionary ethics are very comprehensive,and he has widely absorbed many theoretical views of evolutionary ethics,moral psychology and gene-culture co-evolution.He has also carried out innovative researches on the emotional,thinking and language developments of primates and human children,providing scientific supports to his theory on evolutionary ethics.All in all,with the recency???mechanism of morality and its evolution view,Tomasello illustrates the uniqueness of human beings and their biological roots in an impressive way.