ABSTRACT
Ethics has developed and changed throughout recorded history. That ethics has a cultural and not only an evolutionary history, that it underwent a long process of development, and that it wasn't something that was "fixed in our genes" from the beginning does not by itself imply anything about either the rationality or the objectivity of ethical judgments. The great historical changes in the American and French Revolutions were influenced by the idea of government as a "social contract" into which all the citizens enter. Morality has a number of basic interests, including respect for the humanity in the other, equality of moral rights and responsibilities, compassion for suffering and concern to promote human well-being. The chapter suggests that the history of ethics is just called "Lamarckian" and not "Darwinian"; it is the history of the evolution of a set of distinctive interests that themselves presuppose certain historical developments; in particular, they more and more presuppose the development of democratic societies.
