Science of Morality and Ethics

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"As a classic text in moral philsophy concludes, 'Morality is, first and foremost, a matter of consulting reason.' ... This dominant perspective falls prey to an illusion: Just because we can consciously reason from explicit principles -- handed down from parents, teachers, lawyers, or religious leaders -- to judgements of right and wrong doesn't mean that these principles are the source of our moral decisions. On the contrary, I argue that moral judgements are mediated by an unconscious process, a hidden moral grammar that evaluates causes and consequences of our own and others' actions. This account shifts the burden of evidence from a philosophy of morality to a science of morality." (Emphasis mine, MMHN p2)
"Our evolved moral instincts do not make moral judgements inevitable. Rather they color our perceptions, constrain our moral options, and leave us dumbfounded because the guiding principles are inaccessible, tucked away in the mind's library of unconscious knowledge." (ibid)

Or what issues have a moral component at all. Why is incest a moral question but not tall people sleeping with short people? Evolved moral sensisibilities can answer, but moral realism (minus God) cannot.

"Bottom line: Reasoning and emotion play some role in our moral behavior, but neither can do complete justice to the process leading up to moral judgement. We haven't yet learned why we have particular emotions or specific principles for reasoning. We give reasons, but these are often insufficient. Even when they are sufficient, do our reasons cause our judgements or are they consequences of unconscious psychological machinations?" (Ibid p11)
Similarly, evolution provides an explanation of why would would spend $100 to get an injured child we come upon to the hospital, but not spend $50 to save the lives of 10 children overseas. Our moral sense evolved while we were only in position to help those in our immediate path.
Example of grammar that is known by all but never consciously taught: "Frank is more foolish than Tom is" is never couched in the form "Frank's more foolish than Tom's."

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