"Morality without God"

Primatologist Frans de Waal argues that morality predates religion. If this is the case in our evolutionary history then it would be possible for people to have morality without appealing to God or religion.

Troy Jollimore makes the argument:

"Jollimore [...] cites Socrates’ arguments in the “Euthyphro” to assert that the need for a God-based morality is not just unnecessary, but incoherent. So why do so many remain unconvinced? Jollimore largely blames modern attempts to formulate an “ethics beyond religion,” and the Kantian and utilitarian projects particularly, for not offering a robust enough account of the moral life. Jollimore thinks the more up-to-date “particularism” of Iris Murdoch and John McDowell does a better job of integrating “theory and experience.” Their thought in turn, Jollimore thinks, owes much to the unfashionable Aristotelian notion of “practical wisdom,” and an ethical system based not on “rules,” but on character, judgement, and the virtues. “Moral particularism,” then, is a “secular ethics” that is based more in practice than in theory; it’s also one that Jollimore concedes “shares some important common ground with religious tradition.” (Copied from the NYT)

Jollimore's full essay entitled 'Godless but good' can be found here