''Morals without God?''

Franz De Waal is taking his scientific work on the social behavior of Chimps into moral Philosophy. This is not new, but what's new is that De Waal's discourse has shifted from trying to pin down the biological origins of morality in primates to defining morality itself as experienced by human beings.

Also, the title that is given to his article seems to suggest that Biology will show us that morality is not derived from the belief in God. Morals without God did not wait for Biology to occur, it is called universal rationality specific to human beings, and it was put forward by Emmanuel Kant, the famous Enlightenment philosopher.

Photo courtesy of National Geographic

If we consider our species without letting ourselves be blinded by the technical advances of the last few millennia, we see a creature of flesh and blood with a brain that, albeit three times larger than a chimpanzee’s, doesn’t contain any new parts. Even our vaunted prefrontal cortex turns out to be of typical size: recent neuron-counting techniques classify the human brain as a linearly scaled-up monkey brain.[2] No one doubts the superiority of our intellect, but we have no basic wants or needs that are not also present in our close relatives. I interact on a daily basis with monkeys and apes, which just like us strive for power, enjoy sex, want security and affection, kill over territory, and value trust and cooperation. Yes, we use cell phones and fly airplanes, but our psychological make-up remains that of a social primate. Even the posturing and deal-making among the alpha males in Washington is nothing out of the ordinary.

It is entertaining and informative as always with De Waal but it is also far fetched, especially in the above cited passage. Go and see for yourself...