QUANTUM-EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF MORALITY (QETM)
A Synthetic Model of Morality as an Emergent Property of Complex Adaptive Systems
Author: George Alexandrovich Zhukov
Scientific Advisor: Svetlana Yulianovna Shikshshova
Moscow — 2025
ABSTRACT
This work proposes the Quantum-Evolutionary Theory of Morality (QETM)—an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that conceptualizes morality as an emergent property of complex adaptive systems arising at the intersection of biological evolution, neurocognitive processes, and cultural-historical dynamics.
QETM integrates findings from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, complexity theory, and the theory of punctuated equilibrium. A key methodological component of the theory is the use of quantum-like probabilistic formalisms to model moral decision-making and the collective dynamics of norms. Importantly, QETM does not posit a physical quantum nature of morality or consciousness; quantum information theory is employed exclusively as a formal and mathematical framework for modeling contextuality, non-commutativity, and nonlinearity in moral decisions that are poorly captured by classical probabilistic models.
Within QETM, morality is treated as a dynamic system striving toward cognitive, neural, and social coherence, while its historical evolution is described in terms of phase transitions and punctuated equilibrium. The theory formulates a number of empirically testable hypotheses at the intersection of neurobiology, cognitive science, and sociology.
1. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF MORALITY
Contemporary scientific approaches to the study of morality are characterized by significant methodological fragmentation. Evolutionary biology and sociobiology convincingly explain the origins of prosocial intuitions through mechanisms of natural, kin, and group selection. Neuroscience identifies neural correlates of empathy, fairness, guilt, and normative control. However, these approaches primarily address the mechanisms underlying moral behavior, leaving insufficiently clarified the subjective and systemic nature of moral choice.
An additional challenge concerns the explanation of the phenomenology of moral experience: why moral choice is experienced by the subject as internally binding, value-laden, and existentially significant. The historical dynamics of morality further exhibit a distinctly nonlinear character, manifested in long periods of normative stasis punctuated by abrupt moral transformations.
The aim of the Quantum-Evolutionary Theory of Morality (QETM) is to propose an integrative scientific model that connects the biological foundations of morality, the cognitive dynamics of individual moral choice, and the nonlinear evolution of moral norms in history.
2. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF QETM
2.1. Evolutionary and Neurobiological Foundations of Morality
Within QETM, moral intuitions are understood as products of the biological evolution of social species. Theories of kin altruism, reciprocal altruism, and group selection account for the evolutionary stability of cooperative behavior as an adaptive mechanism. Empirical research in primatology confirms the presence of proto-moral mechanisms in great apes, including empathy, social punishment, and expectations of fairness.
At the neurobiological level, moral decision-making is implemented through distributed neural networks involving the ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and parietal regions. These networks integrate emotional signals, social norms, and cognitive predictions of action outcomes.
2.2. Punctuated Equilibrium and the Evolution of Moral Systems
QETM draws upon the theory of punctuated equilibrium as a universal model for the evolution of complex adaptive systems. Moral systems are conceptualized as cultural-cognitive structures that undergo long periods of normative stabilization interspersed with brief phases of intensive transformation.
Moral revolutions are interpreted as phase transitions arising from the accumulation of cognitive, social, and value-based contradictions and the attainment of critical systemic thresholds.
2.3. Quantum-Like Models and the Cognitive Dynamics of Morality
QETM employs quantum-like models of decision-making that are widely used in contemporary cognitive science. These models utilize the mathematical apparatus of quantum information theory without assuming the physical quantumness of cognitive processes.
Moral choice is interpreted as a context-dependent probabilistic process in which the order of arguments, social pressure, and the emotional state of the subject shape the structure of available alternatives.
**2.4. Philosophical and Scientific Justification of the Term
“Quantum-Evolutionary Theory of Morality”**
The use of the term “quantum-evolutionary” in the title of the theory requires explicit methodological clarification, as references to quantum terminology outside fundamental physics have historically been associated both with productive interdisciplinary borrowings and with conceptual misuse. Accordingly, the Quantum-Evolutionary Theory of Morality (QETM) introduces this term in a strictly limited and philosophically articulated sense.
First and foremost, it must be emphasized that within QETM the term “quantum” is not ontological in nature. The theory does not claim that morality, consciousness, or social processes constitute physically quantum systems. No assumptions are made regarding quantum entanglement, wave function collapse, or other physical quantum effects at the neural or social level. The use of quantum terminology pertains exclusively to the formal and modeling level of description.
In QETM, “quantum” refers to the application of quantum-like probabilistic formalisms, derived from quantum information theory, to model cognitive and moral processes that systematically deviate from the assumptions of classical rationality. These include empirically documented phenomena such as contextual dependence of decisions, order effects, non-commutativity of evaluations, interference between alternatives, and the impossibility of defining a single classical probability space.
The philosophical foundation of this approach lies in structural realism, according to which scientific theories describe not “things-in-themselves” but stable relational structures that may exhibit formal isomorphism across different ontological domains. The history of science provides numerous precedents in which the same mathematical apparatus has been successfully applied to fundamentally different systems—from mechanics and thermodynamics to economics and cognitive science. In this context, the use of quantum formalization in QETM constitutes not an ontological identification but a structural borrowing.
The evolutionary component of the theory highlights the dual dynamics of morality. On the one hand, moral intuitions are shaped through the biological evolution of social species; on the other, specific moral norms and values evolve within cultural-historical time, exhibiting nonlinear dynamics analogous to punctuated equilibrium in biological evolution. The integration of quantum-like cognitive microdynamics with evolutionary macrodynamics of normative systems constitutes the conceptual core of QETM.
Thus, the term “quantum-evolutionary” denotes not the physical nature of morality but the non-classical probabilistic structure of moral choice, combined with an evolutionary logic of normative development. Its use is justified both methodologically and philosophically, as it signals a departure from linear, reductionist models of morality and reflects the genuine complexity of the phenomenon under investigation.
3. THE CORE OF THE QUANTUM-EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF MORALITY
Postulate 1. Morality as an Emergent Property
According to QETM, morality is an emergent property of the integrated system “biological organism — cognitive consciousness — social environment” and cannot be fully reduced to any of these levels in isolation.
Postulate 2. Two-Level Dynamics of Morality
QETM distinguishes between:
- a vertical (biological) level, which shapes universal moral intuitions;
- a horizontal (cultural-evolutionary) level, which determines specific norms and values through processes of punctuated equilibrium.
Postulate 3. Moral Choice as a Quantum-Like Process
In situations of complex moral dilemmas, an individual’s cognitive system exists in a state of competing alternatives that are context-sensitive and resistant to binary description.
Within QETM, moral choice is modeled as a probabilistic selection process formally analogous to quantum-like decision models and accompanied by the subjective experience of coherence or internal conflict.
Postulate 4. Coherence as a Criterion of Moral Experience
The subjective feeling of moral “rightness” is interpreted in QETM as an indicator of high neural and cognitive integration. Feelings of guilt and moral dissonance reflect a decrease in systemic coherence.
Postulate 5. The Source of Moral Innovation
According to QETM, moral innovations arise under conditions of weakened normative pressure and relative social isolation, allowing new value configurations to maintain cognitive stability prior to their diffusion into the broader social environment.
4. EMPIRICAL IMPLICATIONS OF QETM
- Situations of complex moral choice are associated with increased synchronization of competing neural networks.
- Subjective feelings of moral closure correlate with enhanced interregional neural integration.
- Historical moral transformations exhibit threshold-based and nonlinear dynamics.
- The rate of diffusion of new moral norms depends on the semantic and value-based proximity of social groups.
5. CONCLUSION
The Quantum-Evolutionary Theory of Morality (QETM) offers a comprehensive scientific framework integrating biology, cognitive science, and complexity theory. The use of quantum-like models is strictly formal and aimed at capturing the contextual nature of moral choice.
Within QETM, morality emerges as a stable emergent phenomenon arising in complex adaptive systems of human society and governed by universal laws of nonlinear evolution.