Describes ways in which sociobiology can throw some light on the study of ethics, including recognition of the fact that human behavior, culture, and ethics do not exist in a biological vacuum. Topics discussed are sociobiology as ideology, culture and genes, and enlightened self interest. For journal availability, see SO 505 653. (Author/DB)

This paper argues that the emerging discipline of sociobiology has the potential of doing what epistemologists, developmental psychologists, psychoanalysts, and ethologists have been unable to do: to provide a theory documenting our inherited dispositions as reflected in cultural evolution and personal development. Accordingly, the paper begins…