How did people develop a conscience in the evolutionary process?

Question

Okay, so I'm taking Biology this year, and one of the students asked the teacher how we developed a conscience. My teacher said something like our brains evolved over time or something, and then she changed the subject. It didn't sound very convincing.

I honestly don't understand how people could have developed good and bad all by themselves. Like killing a man is wrong type of thing. Like how did humans develop justice? How do we know what is right and what is wrong? And why do some people have different rights that are wrong to others? And how do we know Hitler wasn't right and we're wrong? Since we're ever changing animals wouldn't we have just maintained what the other animals considered good or bad? Could you please explain how it happened?

I simply ask because I want to be able to defend what I believe.
Thanks much.

Answer 1

Consider that many things which are defined as "bad" or "taboo" such as killing other people, relatives marrying etc aren't arbitrary- they have a basis in simple pragmatism. Natural selection ensures that traits which give organisms an advantage in their environment are more likely to passed on, while those which are a disadvantage are not. Humans are social animals, so this balance is evaluated in terms of living with other humans.

Note that even in the animal kingdom, animals distinguish between their own kind and others. A mother bear defends her cubs, she doesn't eat them. Members of a wolfpack don't go around killing each other- they hunt cooperatively. Even very primitive insects like ants are social creatures- they aren't overly agressive towards each other, but let termites try to invade the mound...

Early tribes needed all of their members to survive and thrive. So one can easily see how frequently killing others would be considered a bad thing- you have fewer bodies to stand watch over the young, fewer people to hunt, fish, collect wood, build shelters etc. The advantages of having more able-bodied, productive members your social group far outweigh the costs. So very quickly those people understood that it's not a good idea to be killing other group members, stealing their stuff, or doing things which bring members into unnecessary conflict with each other. Having friends is good- you can nap on a rock without worrying if they'll bash your head in- they'll wake you up if a dangerous predator appears. Having enemies on the other hand, is bad.

Incest? Well that's a genetic nightmare- everyone carries recessive genes- combining them results in nasty problems for the offspring. It's very likely that early humans saw what happened when close relatives chose each other as mates, so that came to be regarded as a BAD thing- laws and religions which arose naturally treated it as such.

Drink the funny juice that makes you crazy and violent towards everyone else- that funny juice will be considered bad. Just like people learn not to eat poisonous fruits or jump into fires, certain behaviors are beneficial while others are not.

As humans developed such things as written records, these ideas became the basis for laws and religion that were passed on to later generations.

Living in societies where there's a division of labor, we don't all hunt for ourselves, or even farm for oursleves. A critically important ability is being able to get along and cooperate with others- so traits which make this more likely (such as kindness, compassion etc) are advantageous and will not only be passed on, but the people themselves will regard them as "good" things.

Sure, different societies have developed different rules regarding what's right and wrong, but the most basic things are universal- I know of no society that condones individuals murdering other members.. Most of these very basic rules just make sense from the standpoint of what's beneficial vs what isn't. So having a conscience- which is really an intuitive sense of what's "good" within a social framework vs what's "bad" ... would be an evolutionary advantage.

Answer 2

I'm not going to try to answer all your questions.

In a nutshell, humans are social animals. Things that bind humans into communities aid survival.

The complex cerebral cortex is cross-wired to the primitive pleasure / pain centers by neurons and hormones. As a result, "good" deeds are pleasurable, and "bad" deeds result in pain (guilt).

Justice is a social ideal. Ideas are not biological evolution, but part of cultural evolution. Cultures evolved differently.

You could take a college course on these questions and only scratch the surface. I hope I can give you some ideas on how to start attacking the question.

Answer 3

That's actually a very good question. Perhaps you should become an evolutionary scientist and try to model the process by which the human conscience evolved. It should be a rich and fascinating area of study.

The fact that scientists can't explain in detail the origin of everything is not a blow against evolutionary theory.

Answer 4

Big brains...more reasoning for the good and bad part of it...as for Justice, it is just a prettier word for revenge, a very basic 'emotion' that any animal may feel. As for why killing another human being feels and is wrong, survival of the species instinct. The differentiation of morals is based off of whatever the culture is, like the Anglo-Saxons valued bravery, courage, and honor, while the Greeks valued the same thing but also intelligence and wit, and what not...Just like how different animals of a species might have differing group relationships (like how chimps of two different 'packs' may act differently) It depends on how you take good and bad for Hitler and all that stuff. I hope I explained to your satisfactory...

Answer 5

We have a couple of emotional roots here:

Happiness -- you're taking care of your children successfully.

Grief -- one of your children died, and you're being punished by feeling bad; said bad feeling decreases the likelihood that you'll let your other children die.

All mammals have these feelings. We're social and cultural, moreso than other animals. We developed a conscience so we'd know when we did something that had the potential for making one of our clan (or tribe or troop) die. It's a punishment so we'll know not to do it again -- and foreknowledge so we'll know not to do something like it in the first place.

Answer 6

Good answers here. Read " Moral Minds ", by Mark Hauser and you will get the latest scientific evidence for our evolved moral natures.

PS It rarely pays to ask a functional biologist about evolutionary questions.