The roots of morality: why are we good?
E739217
"The roots of morality: why are we good?" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' book *The God Delusion* that explores how human moral behavior can arise from evolutionary and social processes without requiring a religious foundation.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The roots of morality: why are we good? canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8503924 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The roots of morality: why are we good? Context triple: [The God Delusion, chapterTitle, The roots of morality: why are we good?]
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A.
The Science of Good and Evil
The Science of Good and Evil is a book by Michael Shermer that explores the origins of morality through the lenses of science, evolution, and secular ethics.
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B.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
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C.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
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D.
Morality as Anti-Nature
"Morality as Anti-Nature" is a section in Friedrich Nietzsche's *Twilight of the Idols* in which he criticizes traditional moral systems for denying and suppressing natural human instincts.
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E.
The Age of Empathy
The Age of Empathy is a popular science book by primatologist Frans de Waal that explores the evolutionary roots of empathy and cooperation in animals and humans.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The roots of morality: why are we good? Target entity description: "The roots of morality: why are we good?" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' book *The God Delusion* that explores how human moral behavior can arise from evolutionary and social processes without requiring a religious foundation.
-
A.
The Science of Good and Evil
The Science of Good and Evil is a book by Michael Shermer that explores the origins of morality through the lenses of science, evolution, and secular ethics.
-
B.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
-
C.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
-
D.
Morality as Anti-Nature
"Morality as Anti-Nature" is a section in Friedrich Nietzsche's *Twilight of the Idols* in which he criticizes traditional moral systems for denying and suppressing natural human instincts.
-
E.
The Age of Empathy
The Age of Empathy is a popular science book by primatologist Frans de Waal that explores the evolutionary roots of empathy and cooperation in animals and humans.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (37)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book chapter
ⓘ
non-fiction book chapter ⓘ |
| addresses |
the Euthyphro dilemma
ⓘ
linked to:
Euthyphro
whether God commands what is independently good ⓘ whether good is good because God commands it ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
show that secular morality is possible
ⓘ
undermine the argument that religion is necessary for ethics ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst | the claim that morality requires a religious foundation ⓘ |
| author | Richard Dawkins ⓘ |
| containedInWorkAuthor | Richard Dawkins ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes | the idea that religion is the source of all morality ⓘ |
| discusses |
altruism in evolutionary theory
ⓘ
group selection debates ⓘ kin selection ⓘ reciprocal altruism ⓘ |
| explores |
how moral behavior can arise from evolutionary processes
ⓘ
how moral behavior can arise from social processes ⓘ |
| genre |
atheist literature
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
altruism
ⓘ
evolutionary ethics ⓘ evolutionary psychology ⓘ morality ⓘ religion and morality ⓘ social behavior ⓘ |
| partOf | The God Delusion ⓘ |
| positionInWork | middle chapters of The God Delusion ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2006 ⓘ |
| publisherOfContainingWork | Bantam Press ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The God Delusion ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
academic commentary on religion and morality
ⓘ
discussions on secular ethics ⓘ |
| supportsView |
moral instincts may be products of evolution
ⓘ
morality can be explained by natural selection ⓘ |
| title | The roots of morality: why are we good? ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The roots of morality: why are we good? Description of subject: "The roots of morality: why are we good?" is a chapter in Richard Dawkins' book *The God Delusion* that explores how human moral behavior can arise from evolutionary and social processes without requiring a religious foundation.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.