Game theory and morality

Abstract

This chapter argues that the idea that all organisms are inherently selfish and immoral by nature is only half right. It explains how mechanisms that give rise to moral and immoral behaviors can evolve and adduces evidence that they have evolved in the human species and in other species as well. The chapter demonstrates how the strategies prescribed by moral judgments that define L. Kohlberg’s first four stages of moral development could have defeated more selfish strategies in the ancestral environments in which our hominid ancestors evolved. Stage 1 deals with the evolution of deference, and stage 2 is concerned with evolution of direct reciprocity. While stage 3 morality is about the evolution of selective interaction and friendship, natural selection of moral judgments is covered in stage 4 morality. Mental mechanisms that give rise to moral judgments and moral behaviors-often called conscience or superego-contain cognitive representations of others.