But could they tell right from wrong? Evolution, moral responsibility and human distinctiveness

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title But could they tell right from wrong? Evolution, moral responsibility and human distinctiveness
 
Creator Field, David N.
 
Subject — Homo Naledi; Evolutionary Ethics; Theology and Evolution; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; John Wesley
Description This article takes as its point of departure the public interest aroused by the discovery of Homo naledi and the debate about the possibility that H. naledi buried their dead. If they buried their dead, did H. naledi have an awareness of moral responsibility? We have no basis in the fossil remains of H. naledi or other hominids for determining when and how the awareness of moral responsibility evolved. The article provides a brief summary of the evidence for the evolution of morality based on research into the behaviour of other primates and then argues that human moral consciousness is qualitatively distinct from this but can still be understood to be the product of evolution. In the final section the article draws on ideas from the theologies of John Wesley and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to provide a theological interpretation of this evolution of moral consciousness.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-06-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Theological Interpretation
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v73i3.4505
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 73, No 3 (2017); 7 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4505/9645 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4505/9644 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4505/9646 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4505/9630
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 David N. Field https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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