Evolution and ethics viewed from within two metaphors: machine and organism

Abstract

How is moral thinking, ethics, related to evolutionary theorizing? There are two approaches, epitomized by Charles Darwin who works under the metaphor of the world as a machine, and by Herbert Spencer who works under the metaphor of the world as an organism. Although the author prefers the first approach, the aim of this paper is to give a disinterested account of both approaches.

Keywords: Charles Darwin; Ethics; Herbert Spencer; Mechanism; Naturalistic fallacy; Organicism; Progress.