Bio-political philosophy can today confront the perennial questions of
philosophy in the light of a wide range of evidence from the natural
sciences. Observation seems to verify that humans are normative animal
s; although this characteristic of our nature is often traced to ratio
nality, a reconsideration of Hume's critique in the light of biology s
uggests that the ultimate origin of our ''normativeness'' is far more
primordial and less calculated. This suggests that the content of huma
n value systems might be more constant and consistent than they at fir
st appear. I bluntly contend that the Ten Commandments are an example
of a moral regimen, not of how human believers can win salvation and e
ternal life, but rather of how human beings have thus far successfully
guaranteed their earthly existence. In short, what we call our human
normative systems spring from that same selective biology that sees us
as the evolved creatures we are today. They are at one and the same t
ime a cause and an effect of our human condition.