SPINOZA’S UNDERSTANDING OF ‘CONATUS’ AND EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS: TWO APPROACHES FOR SEARCH OF THE SOURCE OF MORALITY

Abstract

In this paper, two ethical theories are discussed: Spinozistic ethics and evolutionary ethics. The reason for evaluating these theories is because both of them start with the very same question: “what is good?” and they both underlie the importance of the benefits of morality. According to Spinoza’s conatus doctrine, people called the thing as good which are good for their power to survive (conatus). While he points out the personal conatus, he also supports that living in a society is best for their personal conatus. For evolutionary ethics, social norms like morals are the result of living in a society. Moral judgments are crucial for cooperation and thus survival. With the light of these two ethical theories, in this paper, it will be argued that the main purpose of moral traits was to increase the collaboration and survival of the society and so to provide a more livable surrounding for the individuals. Therefore, today’s multicultural societies the best thing for us to do is to capture the essence of the reason why we need morality in the first place. This will help us to create a more collaborative society.

Keywords

• ethics
• spinozistic ethics
• evolutionary ethics
• conatus doctrine
• ahlak felsefesi
• spinoza
• evrimsel ahlak
• conatus doktrini