Phl 303
Lecture 16: Sociobiology and Morality; Chaucer on Marriage

Sociobiology

I. The Unit of Selection Problem II. Biology and Eudaemonia
III. Biology and Morality
IV. Sex & Ethical Creativity

I. The Unit of Selection Problem

3 theories:

The species, or some other large group.
2. The gene (Dawkins, The Selfish Gene)
3. A form of life, eco-organic system.

Gene selectionism

A bird is a gene's way of making another gene.
Everything in evolution is to be understood in terms of the reproduction of genes (Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene)

A Response

By same token:

A bird is a nest's way of making another nest.
Genes are only part of a system that replicates itself.
Apart from the system, strings of DNA are not genes. (Aristotelian holism)

II. Biology and Eudaemonia

Eudaemonia (happiness) = the fulfillment of our final cause as human beings

From a biological point of view, final cause = adaptation.

So, biologically speaking, eudaemonia = fulfillment of all of the adaptations characteristic of the human species.

The connection between eudaemonia and successful reproduction is indirect.

Natural selection forms our adaptations, with the principle of selection being successful reproduction.

However, happiness consists in fulfilling these adaptations, not in fulfilling Nature's criterion (reproduction).

So, it is possible to be substantially happy even though your genes fail to reproduce themselves.

Example: suppose a nuclear disaster causes us all to become sterile (as in P. D. James' recent novel, The Children of Men )

We could still achieve a considerable degree of happiness by fulfilling our natural functions (for friendship, work, virtue), even though the ultimate biological purpose of these adaptations has been nullified.

This is not to deny that having and successfully raising children is not one component of happiness. May not be possible to be perfectly happy without children.

Eudaemonia, adaptations -- essentially backward-looking.

The question is not: which features are now most effective for future reproduction?

But: which features have become part of human nature by natural selection in the past, due to past success in reproduction?

III. Biology and Morality

A. Mechanisms for explaining the evolution of morality

1. Kin selection. Developed especially in studying social insects. Sterile worker ants.

Recognition needn't be perfect: sponges "cooperate" with nearby sponges, since they're usually related.

Affection for familiar (family-like) people.

2. Reciprocal altruism.

You scratch my back...
A sense of fairness, a disposition to demand and to take no more than is fair, a disposition toward honesty:
all of these are adaptive.

Depends on recognition and exclusion/punishment of free-riders, cheaters.

Peacemaking is adaptive: strategies for containing and minimizing violence, such as territoriality.

Suppose that the virtue of justice is indeed adaptive -- favored by natural selection.

Contrary to Darwin: not merely a by-product of other adaptations.
Contrary to Mill: not merely a product of civilized culture.

A vindication of Plato's position, articulated by "Socrates" in the Gorgias:
virtue is a necessary condition of happiness.

The just person is happy, and the unjust person is unhappy, even if the latter prospers and escapes punishment.

Moral adaptations are an integral part of eudaemonia.To be truly happy, one must fulfill all of one's adaptations, including the moral ones.

Justice is not merely a means: it is good in itself.

The social contract has been incorporated into human nature in such a way that being just or fair is part of being happy.

Chaucer on Sex & Marriage

The Pilgrimage
The Aristotelian View
The Three Tales

The Pilgrimage

Image of Life: a company of pilgrims, "who happened together in fellowship."
Represents society -- in reality, not idealized.
Many ranks, types. Mixture of believers & hypocrites, saints and sinners.

Some -- relatively positive

The Knight: gentle & courageous. A model of chivalry.
The Clerk of Oxford: disinterested love of learning.
Is the Knight perhaps too chivalrous (so many battles)?
Is the Clerk too extreme in his dedication, neglecting his financial needs?

Perfect Types

The Parson and the Plowman -- are without question ideal pastor & layman.
The Franklin: described as a hedonist ("Epicurean"), yet a generous, hospitable and wise landowner. He may represent earthly (natural) happiness and virtue, as opposed to the supernatural virtue of the parson & plowman.

Fiction and Reality

Chaucer cleverly interweaves fiction and reality:
Chaucer himself is one of the 30 pilgrims.
The tales are stories within a story.
In the Merchant's tale, the characters refer to the Wife of Bath, one of the characters in the larger story.
Chaucer may be suggesting that we are like characters in a divine drama.

Aristotle on Sex

The difference between man & woman is a deep one, but not one of essence.
Sex differences intensify as one moves up the chain of life:
In plants, each organism typically has both sexes.
In animals, male and female sexes are in different organisms, who must use perception and movement to find each other.
Aristotle didn't know about asexual reproduction among lower animals (protozoa, sponges): if he had, it would have strengthened his case.
According to Aristotle, the process of sexual differentiation reaches its peak with human beings: our rational souls are suffused with maleness or femaleness.
In humans, the two sexes must come together not only physically, but also rationally.
The two sexes complement each other not only physically, but also soulishly, psychologically.
For Aristotle, marriage is a kind of friendship, the most important kind.
Husband and wife have distinct, complementary spheres of authority: the wife over the internal management of the household, the husband over external relations.

Chaucer's Marriage Tales

The Wife of Bath
The Merchant
The Clerk
The Franklin

The Wife of Bath's Prologue

The woman of Bath characterizes marriage as involving a kind of economic exchange involving sex & property.
She also identifies a number of psychological and rhetorical factors that influence the balance of power.

Rhetorical & Psychological Factors

The asymmetry of desire for intercourse. Unavailability increases desire, worsening the asymmetry.
Manipulation by guilt and blame (used on the first three "good" husbands)
Stories and proverbs (the book used by the 5th husband).
Violence and victimhood.

The Prologue vs. the Tale

The Prologue displays gritty realism: depicts marriage, warts and all.
On balance, positive? The Woman staunchly defends the married state.
The Tale begins roughly -- with a rape, and the rapist on death row.
But then it transmutes into a charming fairy tale.

The Point of the Tale

The question: "what do women really want?" (Stumped Freud.)
Note the profound change in the character of the rapist: he ends by yielding sovereignty to his wife.
Note too that the sovereignty is voluntarily yielded by the husband: not taken by force or trickery.

Courtly Love & Marriage

The answer: women want the selfsame authority over their husbands they enjoy over their lovers.
The tradition of courtly love: ordinarily quite separate from marriage. The lover seeks to please his beloved above all else.
Chaucer is recommending, in effect, the incorporation of courtly love within marriage.

The Merchantšs Tale

"January" decides to marry "May": a not-too-subtle use of names.
Januaryšs reasons for marriage are entirely self-centered: concern for his soul, desire for a beautiful young wife, who will satisfy his needs with a minimum of trouble.
In effect, he treats the acquisition of a wife as the purchase of a property.

Januaryšs Folly

January selects a woman without property or status, thinking that this will ensure his control over her.
For Aristotle, it is the mark of the "barbarian" that the husband treat his wife as a piece of property, like a domesticated animal.
January is consistently foolish: foolish in getting married, foolish in choosing his mate (without thought to her character), foolish in trusting Damien.

Folly vs. Virtue

This folly inheres in Januaryšs lack of virtue. Lacking virtue himself, he is unable to recognize its deficit in others.
Note that the queen of the fairies gives a bold answer to May, but is not responsible for Januaryšs credulity.
Like the wife of Bathšs first 3 "good" husbands, January is easily manipulated and scolded into submission.

The Franklin's Tale

The Franklin is a wonderful character: this-worldly, no saint, but good and wise, an ideal landowner and citizen.
The story is marvelous: poignant, plausible in characterization. Depicts an ideal marriage, characterized by mutual sovereignty.

Dorigen & Arveragus

Arveragus vows never to exercise his authority against Dorigenšs will.
He will preserve his authority only in name, for the sake of his honor.
A synthesis of the dynamics of courtly love with the form of marriage.

Similarities to Aristotle

The wife rightly exercises authority over all matters internal to the household. Only a foolish, tyrannical husband would seek to interfere with his wifešs legitimate authority, rooted in her natural aptitudes.
The husband's role: generating income, managing the external relations of the household, including civic politics.