February 11, 2005

Scholar Explores Relation of Nature to Nurture in Development of Morality

By PETER MONAGHAN

Whether or not human beings are genetically inclined toward particular kinds of actions, those dispositions have evolved in the complex web of nature and nurture. That fact makes morality just as fascinating as if it had a transcendent source. So argues Neil Levy, a fellow at the Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne, in Australia, in What Makes Us Moral: Crossing the Boundaries of Biology (Oneworld Publications).

Q. So, morality is a