Exploring a functionalist model of moral elevation

Abstract

This chapter introduces the subject of interest for the thesis – a social emotion called moral elevation. The first section gives a brief summary of evolutionary explanations for human prosocial behaviour, and locates the thesis’ topic within a broader framework of current academic enquiry. The second section summarizes the extant moral elevation literature and identifies a gap in the literature concerning whether the emotion may have been sculpted by natural selection. A précis of the criteria for labeling a trait an adaptation is offered, and a framework for understanding emotions as evolved cognitive mechanisms is outlined. Two theories about the possible adaptive function performed by moral elevation are explained; the relationship-building hypothesis, and the reputation-management hypothesis. Prima facie reasons for preferring the latter over the former are laid out, and the chapter ends with a summary of predictions about elevation’s form, which are to be expanded on in subsequent chapters.