On the Origin of Morality

Abstract

From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, the paper discusses the origin of morality as a key issue of moral philosophy from the following three aspects: 1. a historical study of its "religious origin" and "custom origin" and their weaknesses; 2. an examination of the significant but long ignored theory in Westermarck's The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas as well as its short comings; 3. the author's new interpretation based on Westermarck's interpretation.