Abstract

According to some scholars, Darwinian biology, by showing that morality arises from human nature, refutes the assumptions of such moderns as Hobbes and Locke and restores the intellectual credibility of Aristotle’s understanding of human nature and morality. This paper contends, in contrast, that Aristotelian magnanimity cannot be fully explained in terms of the Darwinian account of morality. This incapacity indicates that the claimed Darwinian restoration of Aristotle’s moral and political science is in fact only partial, and ultimately leads to the conclusion that Darwinian political theory is more fundamentally modern and Hobbesian than its proponents have contended