(Racjonalnosc, zło i ewolucja

In philosophical anthropology and ethics the phenomenon of rational agent doing evil to others or oneself has always been seen as a problem which demands solution. It is argued that adopting an evolutionary perspective and making distinction between instrumental and biological rationality enables to explain this enigma. It is maintained that in the reference to the evolutionary theories of altruism also egoistic and evil behavior can be explained. From this point of view many human actions, although evil, seem to be biologically rational. Furthermore, it is pointed out that also many irrational evil actions can be explained on the grounds of evolutionary biology and psychology (1) as byproducts of psychological mechanisms that evolved to promote altruistic behavior or (2) as results of nervous system dysfunction.