Boyd Addresses Evolution and Human Nature in Perry Lecture

BY KEAGAN O’RILEY, ’23

The Dr. Thomas A. Perry Faith & Science Lecture at Central Methodist University brought Dr. Craig Boyd to campus this spring, where he spoke on “Evolution and Narrative Ethics: A Way Forward?”

Boyd’s talk was preceded by a short introduction on the history of the Perry Lecture series, given by CMU alumnus Garth Leigh, ’61. Boyd was then introduced by Central’s Dr. Kevin Carnahan, professor of philosophy and religion.

To begin his lecture, Boyd detailed his experience traveling to Florence, Italy, where he visited the tomb of Galileo Galilei. While there, he overheard a tour guide repeat some common myths about the famous astronomer and physicist to their tour group – including his inventing of the telescope and his torture by the Catholic Church. Boyd then raised an important point: Stories change depending on who tells them.

Boyd led into his discussion on evolution by outlining four alternative ways of approaching or thinking about human nature in relation to evolution. These major alternatives, as told by Boyd, are the Conformist, the Resister, the Maximizer, and the Transformer views.

Conformers, Boyd explained, see evolution as “fundamentally selfish” and a “war of all against all.” Morality in a Conformer’s view would see the weak “purified” from the population which, as Boyd pointed out, is rather a barbaric sense of morality. Resisters, on the other hand, see evolution as the competitive all against all, but believe human behavior is selfish and that morality is the “means by which we resist our worst impulses.”

Boyd then introduced something called memes, which are cultural equivalents or parallels to biological genes passed on from generation to generation and serve as the “means by which we resist our worst impulses.” Boyd pointed out a flaw in the Resister views on evolution and the existence of memes. If evolution is purely competitive, then what explains the existence of a mechanism for resisting selfish behavior?

“It’s self-contradictory,” Boyd argued. “You can’t have these memes that are encouraging compassion and kindness when the whole process is a struggle for existence.”

Boyd moved on to discuss the third view of evolution, the Maximizer, which sees evolution as both competitive and cooperative. Morality in the Maximizer view of evolution is the evolved principles for prosocial behavior. But then a question remained: What separates human morality from, say, primate morality?

The last alternative Boyd touched on, the Transformer view, also sees evolution as both competitive and cooperative, but it explains morality as “normative prescriptions” and human nature as having a “sense of justice.” Boyd went on to discuss the difference between intelligence and reason – two major factors of determining the difference between animal and human nature. He ended the lecture by explaining that, while animals may have intelligence, they don’t have the ability to reason like humans and, therefore, have no sense of justice. To wrap up the lecture, Boyd held a short Q&A session with the audience.

The namesake of the Perry Lecture series, Dr. Thomas Perry, served 20 years as chairman of the English department at Central. He also served as chair of the Division of Literature and Languages and chair of the honors program. He sponsored Scribblers and Scrawlers, a club for aspiring creative writers, hosting and entertaining them monthly at his home. Perry is the late father of Tad Perry, ’65, former chairman of the board of trustees at CMU.