A movement sometimes styled “evolutionary ethics” or “evolutionary psychology” takes as its goal the provision of a naturalistic basis for moral judgments.  This new naturalist fashion comes in several overlapping varieties.  Let us consider the two best-known.

 

Query:

A few days ago I had a call from my brother.  When I told him that my studies in seminary were going well, he was moved to tell me he had lost his faith and had been an apostate for years.

 

The law is reluctant to criminalize an act unless it can be framed in terms of the harm the act causes to others.  Although this principle is often credited to John Stuart Mill, he does not deserve the credit.  Versions can be found in Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., and in Thomas Aquinas in the high middle ages.