ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author maintains that it is possible to formulate a plausible general epistemic principle that may serve as a premise in an evolutionary debunking argument (EDA) against moral beliefs by appealing to recent approaches to knowledge that center on the role of intellectual or epistemic virtues. Relying on the principle the author dubs “the achievement conception of undercutting defeat,” he argues that evolutionary explanations of morality can undermine the epistemic justification of all our moral beliefs if they show that our cognitive success in morality is not sufficiently creditable to the competent use of our cognitive abilities. By the author’s lights, not only does the antecedent of that conditional not obtain, but evolutionary explanations actually also strengthen the epistemic standing of our moral beliefs by helping us understand how it is that our cognitive abilities enable us to be cognitively successful in morality.
