ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the arguments and research that bear on descriptive ethics and some of the debates within evolutionary biology. It highlights evolutionary theory and evidence that can be applied to human social groups and the relationship between the situation and the propensity to behave cooperatively and altruistically, both of which are essential to pro-sociality. The chapter argues this is precisely a consequence of the confusion between 'how' and 'why', and in fact evolutionary biology and anthropology offer a coherent thread of motivation. It provides unique insights into the motivations we may expect to be present in the resolutions of the dilemmas of social life. The underlying motivations for selection on the basis of group behaviour for social behaviour, however, are more contested. Humans make use of the complexity of the human brain to imbibe, develop and use the power and flexibility of culture and the behaviours and meanings contained within it.
