Moral guidance for the modern primate

In the last chapter, we saw that evolutionary theory sheds light on why we think that certain things are right and others wrong. But does it shed any light on what actually is right and wrong? A lot of people think that it does, or worry that it might. Since the nineteenth century, many thinkers have attempted to wrest moral principles from evolutionary theory. Some have concluded that the theory converges with Genesis in suggesting that we should be fruitful and multiply – in other words, that we should do whatever we can to survive and reproduce. Others have concluded that Darwin's theory supports a might-makes-right ethic, in which ruthlessness and selfishness are given the sanction of nature.