进化揭穿论证的认识论困境与生态道德实在论的超越

The Epistemological Dilemma of Evolutionary Debunking Arguments and the Transcendence through Ecological Moral Realism

  • 摘要: 进化揭穿论证(Evolutionary Debunking Arguments, EDAs)认为,道德信念是自然选择的产物,自然选择追踪的是适应,而非真理,因此那种认为存在道德真理的道德实在论就缺乏认识论的根据。EDAs有四个核心预设:适应与真理的二元对立、起源决定认识论、道德真理的非自然独立性,以及模态必然性要求。本文批判这四种预设,并提出了认识论分层辩护模型,说明道德知识怎么能够通过三个相对独立的机制——进化情感、文化筛选和理性批判——的系统性互动获得可靠性。这个模型说明,EDAs存在根本的缺陷,因为它们错误地将信念的基因起源等同于其全部认识论资源。基于此,本文提出了新的道德实在论——社会生态道德实在论,它将道德真理理解为社会生态位中的功能性约束,从而不仅批判进化揭穿论证的不足,而且说明了客观道德知识的根据。

     

    Abstract: Evolutionary Debunking Arguments (EDAs) maintain that our moral beliefs are products of natural selection, which tracks adaptive fitness rather than truth; consequently, moral realism—the view that there are objective moral truths—lacks epistemic justification. EDAs rest on four core presuppositions: a dichotomy between adaptation and truth, the thesis that origins determine epistemic status, the non-natural and independent status of moral truth, and a requirement of modal necessity. This paper critically examines these assumptions and proposes a layered epistemic justification model to explain how moral knowledge can achieve reliability through the systematic interaction of three relatively independent mechanisms: evolved moral emotions, cultural selection, and rational critique. The model shows that EDAs are fundamentally flawed in that they mistakenly equate the genetic origins of beliefs with their entire epistemic credentials. On this basis, the paper advances a revised form of moral realism—termed social-ecological moral realism—which construes moral truth as functional constraints within a social ecological niche. This account not only addresses the shortcomings of EDAs but also provides a grounding for objective moral knowledge.

     

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