Evolution and conscience.....?

Question

If we as humans evolved, then what was the evolutionary advantage of a conscience? Surely it would make us less likely to put ourselves first and preserve our genes as we would be less 'selfish'...........?

Answer 1

Having a conscience, i.e. thinking about the welfare of others, has advantages in a social structure. It is not always a conscious effect. Many animals practice similar behaviors. For example, a vampire bat will provide blood to those of its brethren who had an unsuccessful nights prowling in search of blood. There is no way that all bats can drink blood every night. But because of thier willingness to share, those bats that miss a meal, will not become weak and starve. The bats as a whole are thus more likely to survive. Similarly, those humans that share with others who have had a bad day may be rewarded on a later date when they need it.
It seems to me that a great way to survive is to eat, and to eat many other species. So it is worth our while to continue to support other species, and hedge our bets by having a huge number of them available to guard against disasters.

If our conscience pricks us into realising that wiping out all competition is ultimately dangerous then its very useful for our future.

Examples: If there was only one food, wheat, and a blight destroyed it all we would all die. If one specific family group of individuals rose to dominance, there would be so many genetic anomalies that the population would likely crash.

Hopefully, conscience moderates our actions. We need diversity. How boring has Formula 1 been when Schumaker won every time?

I understood "The Selfish Gene" to be a marketting ploy that Dawkins later regretted. (Apart from the $ / fame etc.) conscience is just a subset of the MIND, which has evolutionary advantages...

Having a conscience doesnt mean that we would be less likely to put ourselves first it could just be an awareness of consequences of actions and actually serves a social purpose..

Having a conscience could also relate to fact that parents have to care for their young ahead of themselves as this in itself is preserving our genes without it where would we be?

Answer 2

Having a conscience, i.e. thinking about the welfare of others, has advantages in a social structure. It is not always a conscious effect. Many animals practice similar behaviors. For example, a vampire bat will provide blood to those of its brethren who had an unsuccessful nights prowling in search of blood. There is no way that all bats can drink blood every night. But because of thier willingness to share, those bats that miss a meal, will not become weak and starve. The bats as a whole are thus more likely to survive. Similarly, those humans that share with others who have had a bad day may be rewarded on a later date when they need it.

Answer 3

I think conscience is just a subset of the MIND, which has evolutionary advantages...

Having a conscience doesnt mean that we would be less likely to put ourselves first it could just be an awareness of consequences of actions and actually serves a social purpose..

Having a conscience could also relate to fact that parents have to care for their young ahead of themselves as this in itself is preserving our genes without it where would we be?

Answer 4

Conscience is a result of social interaction and is needed when living in large groups. Many animals show some signs of conscience in their behaviour. If we adopted the me first all the time we would not be able to form any kind of society and it is better way to preserve our genes if there is protection from other groups

Answer 5

The evolutionary advantage to a social species, such as ours, is rather obvious. You also confuse the motives of the genes with the motives of the organism, though it is in the interest of " selfish genes " to develop a organism that competes by cooperation, such as our social species. Look at the exceptions to this rule, psychopaths, who are maintained in the species at a 4% rate. I think these people, with no conscience, are maintained in the species by negative frequency dependent selection. While the other varying genetic strategies, that include conscience, are maintained by positive frequency dependent selection.

Answer 6

There are scientists who have noticed this sort of behavior in birds. In a certain species, orphaned birds are raised by close relatives. It is thought that this is because that parent bird understands instinctually that the bird it is raising, even though it is not its own progeny, has at least some of the same genes as the parent bird.
In man, family obligations are a strong thing, but the net is thrown wider and the identity group is an extended family or a neighborhood or a city or a nation or, in some rare instances the world.

Answer 7

It seems to me that a great way to survive is to eat, and to eat many other species. So it is worth our while to continue to support other species, and hedge our bets by having a huge number of them available to guard against disasters.

If our conscience pricks us into realising that wiping out all competition is ultimately dangerous then its very useful for our future.

Examples: If there was only one food, wheat, and a blight destroyed it all we would all die. If one specific family group of individuals rose to dominance, there would be so many genetic anomalies that the population would likely crash.

Hopefully, conscience moderates our actions. We need diversity. How boring has Formula 1 been when Schumaker won every time?

I understood "The Selfish Gene" to be a marketting ploy that Dawkins later regretted. (Apart from the $ / fame etc.)

Answer 8

Maybe the goal evolution had was not create a conscience, but simply increase our IQ and cognitive abilities to solve complex problems. Conscience then arose as a side-effect...

Answer 9

It is likely that pre-humans, and humans for most of their history, have survived by living in communities. The communities would tend to have greater genetic similarity within itself than between one community and the next.

So maybe the survival advantage of conscience is to make behaviour which is disadvantageous to the community less likely and thus to make one's own survival and that of one's offspring more likely.

Answer 10

Prove the existance of conscience. It could be we just developed that over time, as the people we grew with showed disapproval of our doing bad, or what was seen as bad. It could be that we don't even have a conscience, because concsience is "This is wrong, and I know it." Whereas, with the earlier scenario, it's "They won't like it."