The fifth chapter of Peter Singer's The Expanding Circle is entitled "Reason and Genes". The author denies the claims of David Hume and modern sociobiologists that reason is a slave to our passions or genes and "cannot give rise to new desires." One can easily imagine the disdain he must have for the theoretical physicists of the reductionist persuasion.
Singer skewers the concept of psychological egoism. He cites reasons to believe that unselfishness is a desire that developed secondary to reason. He concludes that humans are ambivalent due to the "conflict between our self-centered desires and our desire to act in accordance with the standards of public justification that we invoke as a member of a group."
The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger believes that reason can create the desire for a consistent, objective, rational ethics and the only consistent, objective, rational ethics is the plumbline libertarian ethical system.
Singer skewers the concept of psychological egoism. He cites reasons to believe that unselfishness is a desire that developed secondary to reason. He concludes that humans are ambivalent due to the "conflict between our self-centered desires and our desire to act in accordance with the standards of public justification that we invoke as a member of a group."
The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger believes that reason can create the desire for a consistent, objective, rational ethics and the only consistent, objective, rational ethics is the plumbline libertarian ethical system.
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