The Science of Good and Evil
E201273
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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Science of Good and Evil canonical | 2 |
| Morality as a Biological Phenomenon | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1796469 — 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 Science of Good and Evil Context triple: [Michael Shermer, notableWork, The Science of Good and Evil]
-
A.
The Fragility of Goodness
The Fragility of Goodness is a philosophical work by Martha Nussbaum that explores how human vulnerability, luck, and moral conflict shape the pursuit of a good life, especially through readings of ancient Greek literature and philosophy.
-
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.
The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill
The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill is a psychological and evolutionary analysis of human homicidal behavior that explores why the human mind may be naturally predisposed to kill under certain circumstances.
-
E.
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that argues, with extensive historical and statistical evidence, that violence has declined over long stretches of human history and explores the psychological and social forces behind this trend.
- 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 Science of Good and Evil Target entity description: 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.
-
A.
The Fragility of Goodness
The Fragility of Goodness is a philosophical work by Martha Nussbaum that explores how human vulnerability, luck, and moral conflict shape the pursuit of a good life, especially through readings of ancient Greek literature and philosophy.
-
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.
The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill
The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill is a psychological and evolutionary analysis of human homicidal behavior that explores why the human mind may be naturally predisposed to kill under certain circumstances.
-
E.
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature is a non-fiction book by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker that argues, with extensive historical and statistical evidence, that violence has declined over long stretches of human history and explores the psychological and social forces behind this trend.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (36)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst |
divine command theory of morality
ⓘ
moral relativism ⓘ |
| author | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| examines |
altruism
ⓘ
human nature ⓘ origins of moral behavior ⓘ prosocial behavior ⓘ relationship between science and ethics ⓘ role of evolution in morality ⓘ |
| genre |
ethics literature
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| hasForm |
hardcover edition
ⓘ
paperback edition ⓘ |
| hasPerspective | skeptical ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
secular foundation for ethics
ⓘ
universality of some moral principles ⓘ using science to understand morality ⓘ |
| intendedAudience | general readership ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
evolutionary ethics
ⓘ
moral psychology ⓘ morality ⓘ science and religion ⓘ secular ethics ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
popularizing evolutionary approaches to ethics
ⓘ
presenting a science-based account of good and evil ⓘ |
| proposes | naturalistic basis of morality ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2004 ⓘ |
| publisher | Times Books ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
How We Believe
ⓘ
Why People Believe Weird Things ⓘ |
| supports | evolutionary explanation of moral behavior ⓘ |
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 Science of Good and Evil Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Morality as a Biological Phenomenon