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Relative ethics or universal ethics? -- Virtue ethics -- Natural law ethics -- Social contract ethics -- Utilitarian ethics -- Deontological ethics -- Care ethics -- Using the tools of ethics -- Ethical concepts, principles, theories, and traditions -- Ethical principles

This book outlines the rich array of work being done with evolution and ethics by biologists, zoologists, paleontologists, philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and political scientists. John Mizzoni argues that we can understand ethical elements more deeply through an evolutionary perspective and ten theories of ethics.

Abstract
It is well known that virtue ethics has become very popular among moral theorists. Even Aristotelian virtue ethics continues to have defenders. Bernard Williams (1983; 1995, p. xy), though, has claimed that this "neo-Aristotelian enterprise" might "require us tofeign amnesia about natural selection." This paper looks at some recent work on virtueethics as seen from an evolutionary perspective (Michael Ruse, 1991; William Casebeer, 2003; Donald J. Munro, 2005; John Lemos, 2008; Jonathan Haidt & Craig Joseph, 2008) and explores whether Williams' evolutionary challenge can be met. Against Williams' challenge, I argue that "the first and hardest lesson of Darwinism," as Williams calls it, has indeed found "its way fully into ethical thought" (Williams, 1983, p. xy). And virtue ethics—in several varieties, not only Aristotelian—fits it rather well with anevolutionary perspective on human origins.

The scope of the humanities has been broadened by tracing the evolutionary roots of human biology. A salient example of the move in this direction is the philosophical study of ethics. Specifically, Nel Noddings' theory of Care Ethics has made contributions to an evolutionary understanding of morality as having developed through several paths, one of them stemming from the maternal instinct. Recent scientific research on the brains of pregnant women supports Noddings' philosophical sketch. Thus, Noddings' work contributes to the Explaining Morality Program (EMP). The scientific models of morality in the EMP can become stronger if they can incorporate Noddings' insights about a maternal evolutionary path to morality.