Naturaleza y moralidad: Esbozo de una relación vidriosa

Resumen

Abstract. Nature and morality: Outline of a glassy relationship

It is said that Hume “naturalized” morality since, according to him, we can only understand morality when we admit that it is an instinct instilled in us by nature. Even so, the notion of moral instinct thrives among English-speaking scientists not thanks to Hume, but to Darwin’s explanations, which offer a scientific base to ethics. In 1837, Darwin wrote that his theory “will lead to a new philosophy”. True, we are heirs to such naturalist tradition. However, it is thought that Darwinian morality is based on the instinct of self-preservation, when in reality the opposite occurs. To understand more deeply the naturemorality relationship, it is necessary to review the Darwinian approach on the origin of moral and to put forward two contemporary topics that also attend morality based on facts of nature: neurobiological determinism and moral enhancement through biomedical and psychopharmacological techniques.

Key words. Nature and morality, Naturalism in ethics, Darwinian ethics, moral instinct, social instinct, mutual aid, neurodeterminism, neuroscience of ethics, ethics of neuroscience, moral bioenhancement.