Veneer Theory

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Veneer theory is a term coined by Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal in his book "Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved" to denote the view that human morality is "a cultural overlay, a thin veneer hiding an otherwise selfish and brutish nature". The idea of the veneer theory goes back to Thomas Henry Huxley and is today represented by biologists like George C. Williams.Thomas Henry Huxley developed the idea that moral tendencies are not part of the human nature, and so our ancestors became moral by choice, not by evolution. Thus it represents a discrepancy in Huxley's Darwinian conviction. Social behavior is explained by this theory as a veneer of morality. This dualistic point of view separates humans from animals by rejecting every connection between human morality and animal social tendencies. George C. Williams, as another advocate of the veneer theory, sees "morality as an accidental capability produced, in its boundless stupidity, by a biological process that is normally opposed to the expression of such a capability".