Laws of Nature and of Nature's God

When the American Declaration of Independence referred to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” and to truths that are “self-evident”, it is obvious that the Founders had an understanding that there was something innate in the human psyche that compelled our values and ethics. In their view, the very ethos of man was based on forces from within the individual, and not derived from an outside authority.

Certainly the Founders lacked an evolutionary perspective in their understanding of man’s basic nature; however, like birds that understand nothing of aerodynamics but still handle flying, they managed to get it right anyway.

In his seminal work “On Human Nature”, Edward O Wilson has stated that “In order to search for a new morality based upon a more truthful definition of man, it is necessary to look inward, to dissect the machinery of the mind and to retrace its evolutionary history.”  Wilson theorizes that: “innate censors and motivators exist in the brain that deeply and unconsciously affect our ethical premises; from these roots, morality evolved as instinct.”

Wilson believes that philosophers err when, with a lack of evolutionary perspective: “They examine the precepts of ethical systems with reference to their consequences and not their origins.”  Clearly, if we wish to come to a complete understanding of such concepts as honor, justice, truth, ethics and compassion, we need to seek an understanding of just how and why these concepts may be “hard wired” into our brains by our adaptations to past environments.