Evolutionary psychologyBranch of psychologyEvolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regard to the ancestral problems they evolved to solve. In this framework, psychological traits and mechanisms are either functional products of natural and sexual selection or non-adaptive by-products of other adaptive traits.Normative ethicsNormative ethics is the study of ethical behaviour and is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates questions regarding how one ought to act, in a moral sense. Normative ethics is distinct from metaethics in that normative ethics examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions, whereas meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral language and the metaphysics of moral facts.Descriptive ethicsDescriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality. It contrasts with prescriptive or normative ethics, which is the study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act, and with meta-ethics, which is the study of what ethical terms and theories actually refer to.EthicsEthics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics, and metaethics. Normative ethics aims to find general principles that govern how people should act.
SociobiologySociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including ethology and evolutionary biology. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is closely related to evolutionary anthropology and human behavioral ecology. Sociobiology investigates social behaviors such as the hive society of social insects.
MoralityStandard, doctrine or system of conductNot to be confused with Mortality, Morale, Molarity, or Molality.For the philosophical study of morality, see Ethics.Morality may be observed in many prosocial or eusocial animals (Adélie penguins caring for their youths communally in a crèche on the South Orkneys).Morality is a phenomenon among social animals, including humans, through which communities and individuals evaluate actions, character, and social arrangements.
Evolutionary debunkingAn evolutionary debunking, sometimes referred to as an evolutionary debunking argument or evolutionary debunking thesis, is a philosophical argument which holds that, because humans (like all organisms) have an evolutionary origin, the principles of ethics and morality that we have devised are invalid and cannot be considered objective knowledge. Proponents of such arguments argue that they refute, or at least cast doubt on, moral realism and/or theism.
EvolutionChange in the heritable traits of populationsEvolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It happens when individuals in a population vary in their genetic characteristics and in the numbers of their surviving offspring. Mutation introduces new genetic variation, and processes such as genetic drift, gene flow, and natural selection result in some genetic variants becoming more or less common over time.
MetaethicsIn philosophy, metaethics (meta-ethics) is the study of the nature, scope, ground, and meaning of moral judgment, ethical belief, or values. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought to be and act) and applied ethics (practical questions of right behavior in given, usually contentious, situations).
EthologyEthology is a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, and Wallace Craig.PsychologyPsychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, and motives. Psychology is an academic discipline of broad scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. A professional practitioner or researcher involved in the discipline is called a psychologist.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.