Understanding morality and ethics (2026)

Map of contents


Part 1 – structure of morality … 15
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|	└------ Why “morality as cooperation”? … 16
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├------ Instrumental normativity … 19
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|	├------ The metaphor of the flower in the garden … 20
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|	├------ Origin of normativity … 20
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|	├------ Evolutionary self-selection for normativity … 21
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|	├------ Utilitarian value and goodness … 22
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|	├------ Pleasure and Eros … 22
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|	├------ Properties of instrumental normativity … 23
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|	├------ Short- and long-term pleasure … 23
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|	├------ Fact/value distinction … 23
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|	├------ Naturalistic fallacy … 25
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|	├------ Normativity in non-human animals … 25
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|	├------ Normativity and intelligence … 25
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|	├------ Map of normativity … 26
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|	├------ Why prefer the self? – the promotion of me, mine, and ours … 27
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|	└------ Fitness and utility … 28
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├------ Moral normativity … 30
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|	├------ Moral and instrumental oughts … 30
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|	├------ Dual-level psychology of cooperation … 31
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|	├------ Commitment, norms, legitimacy, and responsibility … 33
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|	├------ Moral obligation and bindingness … 34
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|	├------ Instrumental and moral bindingness of obligation … 36
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|	├------ Agreements and their normative force … 36
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|	├------ The ideal collaborative partner … 36
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|	└------ Moral-structural components of morality … 37
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├------ What is morality? … 38
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|	├------ Altruism and mutualism … 38
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|	├------ Collaborative morality and its three moral formulae … 38
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|	├------ Morality and humility … 40
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|	├------ Conscience … 40
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|	└------ Where does morality “come from”? … 41
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├------ Theory of moral domains … 42
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|	├------ List of evolved moral domains … 43
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|	|	├------ 1)  Collaborative foraging for mutual benefit … 44
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|	|	├------ 2)  Patriarchy … 47
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|	|	├------ 3)  Sexual pair-bonding … 48
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|	|	├------ 4)  Parenting … 49
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|	|	└------ 5)  Kin selection … 49
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|	├------ Other (non-evolved) moral domains … 50
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|	|	├------ Organised religion … 50
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|	|	├------ Medical ethics … 51
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|	|	└------ Financial industry regulatory body … 51
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|	├------ Definition and functions of a moral domain … 52
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|	├------ List of features of collaboration / moral domains … 52
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|	├------ Ethical responsibility … 53
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|	├------ Moral principles and the normativity of norms … 54
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|	├------ The goals-methods model of moral domains … 55
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|	|	└------ Internal goals-methods structure of moral domains … 58
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|	├------ This model unifies existing ethical systems … 59
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|	├------ Rightness of action and rightness of goal … 60
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|	├------ The difference between morality and ethics … 61
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|	├------ The Pirate Code of Conduct … 61
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|	├------ Just war theory and the independence thesis … 62
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|	├------ Mutual benefit in moral domains … 64
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|	├------ Relativism and universalism … 65
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|	├------ Evolutionary ethics and moral realism … 65
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|	├------ Provoking moral domains: the metaphor of the radar screen … 67
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|	├------ Is morality rational? … 69
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|	├------ Virtue and the goals-methods theory of moral domains … 69
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|	├------ Intention … 71
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|	├------ Moral purity and sacredness … 72
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|	├------ The link between physical and moral disgust … 73
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|	├------ Trading the sacred for the profane … 73
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|	├------ Purity in the Hindu religion … 74
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|	├------ “Harmless harms” and the Theory of Dyadic Morality … 75
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|	├------ Moral dumbfounding … 77
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|	├------ Origins of the Christian prohibition of homosexuality and extra-marital sex … 80
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|	├------ The incest taboo … 81
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|	├------ Why is harm the default explanation for immorality? … 81
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|	├------ Moral anger … 83
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|	└------ Other structural analyses of morality … 84
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├------ Features of collaboration … 86
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|	├------ Joint goal … 86
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|	├------ Joint agent “we” … 87
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|	├------ Role ideals … 87
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|	├------ Joint commitment to collaborate … 88
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|	├------ Mutual respect and deservingness … 89
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|	├------ Partner choice … 90
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|	├------ Partner control … 90
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|	├------ Respectful protest … 91
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|	├------ Cooperative identity and reputation … 91
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|	├------ Collective moral identity … 92
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|	└------ Moral injury … 92
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├------ Regulation in large groups … 94
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|	├------ Interdependence and group loyalty … 95
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|	├------ Coordination in large groups … 95
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|	├------ Conventions, moral norms, and social norms … 96
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|	|	├------ Conventional and moral norms … 96
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|	|	├------ Social norms … 97
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|	|	└------ Conventions, similarity, and mutual trust … 98
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|	├------ Objective right and wrong … 99
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|	├------ Objective justice … 101
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|	├------ Religion … 101
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|	├------ Cultural rationality and identity … 102
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|	├------ Commitment to, and legitimacy of, the social contract … 103
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|	├------ Monitoring, evaluation, self-governance, and moral identity … 104
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|	├------ Guilt and blame … 105
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|	└------ Origin of the social contract … 106
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├------ Competition and dominance … 107
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|	├------ Authority ranking … 108
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|	├------ Liberty, autonomy, and egalitarianism … 110
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|	├------ Modern egalitarian societies … 111
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|	├------ U-shaped history of human hierarchy? … 113 
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|	├------ Self-domestication of the human race … 114
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|	├------ Transition from egalitarianism to inequality … 118
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|	├------ Young children are instinctively prepared for social situations of hierarchy and dominance … 119
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|	├------ Prehistory of warfare … 119
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|	└------ Equality and property rights … 120
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├------ The Moral Compass … 121
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└------ The Stakeholder Principle … 123
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	├------ Hamilton’s Rule … 126
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	├------ Interdependence and moral domains … 126
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	├------ Interdependence and empathic concern … 127
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	├------ Ultimate and proximate motivations for helping … 128
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	└------ Interdependence and morality … 128

Part 2 – moral values … 130
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├------ Perfect Compassion … 131
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|	├------ Dark traits … 133
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|	├------ Currency of morality … 134
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|	├------ Charity and deservingness … 134
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|	├------ Moral authority … 134
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|	├------ Doing one’s best … 135
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|	├------ Agent-centred and agent-neutral moral reasoning … 135
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|	├------ Contingent morality and ethics … 137
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|	└------ Distribution of benefit and harm from the perspective of the ego … 138
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├------ Fairness … 141
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|	├------ Types of sharing … 142
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|	├------ Two-step evolution of fairness … 143
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|	├------ Fairness as a moral (sub)domain … 143
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|	├------ Evolution of sharing … 143
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|	├------ Sharing in response to need … 145
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|	├------ Sharing proportionately … 147  
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|	├------ Inequity aversion … 148
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|	├------ Self-other equivalence … 149
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|	├------ Fairness to others … 151
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|	├------ Resentment and indignation … 151
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|	├------ Free riders … 151
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|	├------ Types of justice … 152
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|	├------ Justice and judgement … 153
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|	└------ John Rawls and the veil of ignorance … 153
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├------ Reciprocity … 154
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|	├------ Types of reciprocity … 155
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|	|	├------ 1)  tit-for-tat reciprocity … 155
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|	|	|	├------ Contingent cooperation … 156
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|	|	|	├------ Forgiveness … 157
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|	|	|	├------ Reciprocity, forgiveness, and game theory … 159
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|	|	|	├------ Punishment … 160
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|	|	|	└------ Islands of cooperation … 160
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|	|	├------ 2)  indirect reciprocity … 160
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|	|	├------ 3)  downstream reciprocity … 161
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|	|	├------ 4)  attitudinal reciprocity … 163
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|	|	├------ 5)  long-term “buddy” reciprocity … 163
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|	|	└------ 6)  generalised reciprocity … 164
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|	├------ What makes reciprocity tick … 164
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|	├------ Evolution of reciprocity … 165
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|	└------ Reciprocity is a survival skill in hunter-gatherer societies … 166
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├------ Targeted helping … 169
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|	├------ Sympathetic distress within the brain leads to a wish to help … 169
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|	├------ Empathic concern and taking action … 170
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|	├------ Empathic distress and compassion … 171
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|	├------ Helping in social groups … 171
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|	└------ Generalised care … 172
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├------ Empathy … 174
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|	├------ Cognitive empathy … 175
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|	├------ Emotional resonance … 175
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|	|	├------ 1)  body mimicry and neural mimicry … 175
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|	|	├------ 2)  emotional contagion; mirroring … 175
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|	|	├------ 3)  vicarious arousal and alarm … 176
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|	|	└------ 4)  sympathy … 176
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|	├------ Empathic concern and helping behaviour … 176
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|	├------ Perspective taking and empathic accuracy … 178
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|	├------ Perspective taking and cooperation … 180
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|	└------ Perspective taking and exploitation … 180
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├------ The Golden Rule … 183
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|	├------ “Imagine self in position of other” perspective taking … 184
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|	└------ “Imagine other” perspective taking … 185
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├------ Loyalty and unconditional love … 186
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|	├------ Spectrum of conditional benefit and harm … 187
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|	├------ Loyalty and the Stakeholder Principle … 187
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|	├------ Loyalty to an ideology … 188
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|	└------ Trait unconditional empathic concern … 188
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├------ Respecting ownership … 189
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|	├------ Possession and ownership … 189
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|	├------ Existing analyses … 189
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|	├------ History of human possession and ownership … 190
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|	├------ Social norms and ownership … 191
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|	├------ The social contract and ownership … 191
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|	└------ Legitimacy of ownership … 192
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├------ Integrity … 193
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├------ Good manners … 194
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|	└------ The Montagu Principle … 194
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├------ Self-discipline … 196
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|	├------ Self-control and duty … 197
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|	└------ Self control and meditation … 197
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├------ Cooperative breeding … 198
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|	├------ Enhanced prosocial perspective taking in humans … 198
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|	├------ Existing cognitive skills of great apes … 199
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|	├------ Competitive social life of other great apes … 199
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|	├------ Cooperation in humans: thinking and acting together … 200
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|	├------ Sharing and tolerance … 200
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|	└------ Hypothesis for the evolutionary history of cooperative breeding … 201
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├------ Patriarchy … 204
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|	├------ System of social norms … 206
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|	├------ Patriarchy is more powerful in humans than other species … 207
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|	├------ U-shaped history of human patriarchy … 210
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|	├------ Female resistance to patriarchy in primates … 212
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|	├------ Does patriarchy have a biological origin? … 213
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|	├------ Patriarchy in the domestic and public spheres … 214
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|	├------ Patriarchy and narcissism … 214
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|	├------ Toxic masculinity … 215
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|	├------ Toxic feminism … 215
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|	├------ The moralisation of women’s bodily autonomy … 215
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|	├------ Benevolent / hostile sexism and the Madonna / whore dichotomy … 217
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|	├------ How benevolent sexism and the Madonna Complex harm women … 220
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|	├------ How the Madonna-Whore Dichotomy harms men’s relationships with women … 221
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|	└------ The reasonable man and the reasonable woman … 221
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├------ Personhood … 223
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|	├------ Kant’s “ends and means”: treating every human with dignity and respect … 223
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|	├------ Human rights … 224
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|	├------ Circles of concern … 225
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|	├------ Meg De Amasi: interview by her daughter Ena Miller … 226
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|	└------ Fundamental attribution error … 226
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└------ Dark and light traits … 228
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	├------ D, the dark factor of personality … 228
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	├------ D and Perfect Compassion … 229
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	├------ Dark traits … 229
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	├------ List of traits high in D … 230
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	|	├------ Anti-social personality disorder … 230
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	|	├------ Controlling behaviour … 231
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	|	├------ Egotism … 231
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	|	├------ Entitlement (psychological) … 231
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	|	├------ Grandiosity … 231
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	|	├------ Machiavellianism … 232
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	|	├------ Moral disengagement … 233
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	|	├------ Narcissism … 233
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	|	├------ Passive aggression … 236
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	|	├------ Psychopathy … 236
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	|	├------ Sadism … 237
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	|	├------ Self-interest … 238
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	|	├------ Sociopathy … 238
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	|	├------ Spite … 238
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	|	└------ Toxicity (social) … 238
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	├------ Confusion between antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders and psychopathy … 239
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	|	└------ Overlap between NPD / ASPD traits and psychopathic traits … 241
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	├------ D and political extremism … 241
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	├------ Light traits … 242
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	├------ The light triad … 242
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	├------ A quiet ego … 245
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	└------ Online surveys … 246

Part 3 – psychology and spirituality … 247
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├------ Emotions … 248
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|	├------ The Smoke Detector Principle … 249
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|	├------ Naming emotions for conscious processing … 250
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|	└------ Equanimity … 251
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├------ The ego … 252
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|	├------ Monitoring and the “default state” … 254
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|	├------ “Your Restless Mind” … 255
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|	├------ Meditation … 256
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|	|	├------ Taming the wild buffalo … 257
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|	|	├------ Clear sight and self-honesty … 257
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|	|	└------ Acceptance and moral action … 258
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|	└------ “Be Soft” … 258
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├------ Ego defences … 260
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|	├------ Puppet strings and the Grey Rock … 260
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|	├------ Classical ego defences … 261
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|	└------ Mature ego defences … 262
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└------ Desire and “original sin” … 265
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	├------ Short term and long term benefits … 267
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	├------ Seeking to thrive through crime or unethical means … 267 
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	├------ Maladaptive, unconscious, immature ego defences … 267
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	├------ The effect on others … 268
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	├------ Relying on sensual pleasure to make us happy … 268
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	├------ Attachments … 268 
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	├------ Striving … 269
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	└------ Clinging to experience … 269

Appendix 1 – how morality is derived from collaboration … 271

Appendix 2 – contractualism, norms, and the justification of moral beliefs … 276

Appendix 3 – evolutionary metaethics … 286

Bibliography … 297