These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"
The US biologist Robert
Trivers noted that there was more than
cooperation at work. According to Hamilton's genetic metrics, a child should see herself twice more valuable than
her siblings. The parents, on the other hand, should see all siblings as
equally valuable. Thus it is not surprising that siblings compete and fight for
parental resources, while parents teach them to share equally. Parents have to
literally brainwash their children into thinking that it is in their (each
child's) interest to care for their siblings when in fact their genes tell them
(the children) the exact opposite. Beyond family, there is in
general a whole repertory of attitudes that serves the purpose of regulating
altruism (gratitude, compassion, trust, guilt, even hypocrisy). Eventually, it
all boils down to game theory: how to maximize the chances of success and
minimize the chances of failing. We seem to be even equipped
with a repertory of skills to lie, cheat and deceive, and we use that repertory
to complement the equation that maximizes our chances of success, depending on
social conditions. Our conscience is malleable, which is another way to say
that our altruistic strategies are flexible. In a sense the reason why children
lie is that they are just practicing the art of cheating. In fact the tendency
in children to lie is so strong that they will stop lying only if punished
consistently and severely. Otherwise the tendency to lie will amplify.
Conscience is an adaptation of one's altruistic and anti-altruistic instincts
to a specific social environment. Back to the beginning of the chapter "Altruism" | Back to the index of all chapters |