A Nietzschean Approach to Evolutionary Ethics. The Problem of Moral Objectivity

Paolo Stellino

Postdoctoral Project sponsered by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - SFRH/BPD/80275/2011

A peculiar aspect of the several studies, which have been devoted to the examination of the relation between Nietzsche’s philosophy and Darwin’s theory of evolution, is that this relation has been always understood and researched, with very few exceptions, from the perspective of Nietzsche’s confrontation with the Darwinian theories of his time. This project aims, on the contrary, to relate Nietzsche’s philosophy to the contemporary debate on evolutionary ethics. More precisely, the focus of the project is on the similarities, which link Nietzsche’s genealogical method and his metaethical account to contemporary evolutionary anti-realism. The main thesis is that Nietzsche’s strategy of calling into question moral values through their genealogy can be considered as, mutatis mutandis, the very same strategy which philosophers such as Ruse (1986) and Joyce (2006) have deployed in order to defend an evolutionary anti-realist account in metaethics.