Devious Apes

            Toward the end of his argument, Bermond (citing others such as Dennet) suggests, “the original function of consciousness was not social progress, but selfishness and deceit” (108).  The idea being that consciousness, and its subsequent emotional experiences, had to serve some sort of evolutionary purpose.  It only makes sense if it emerged along with higher order brain functions such as long-term planning, secret keeping, and understanding the demands of a complex social environment.  When self-consciousness emerged, it allowed our ancestors to speculate about the consciousness of others, and therefore made it possible to manipulate them.

            Upon further reflection this is not all that surprising, but still somewhat unsettling.  If the first seeds of self-awareness, and therefore all the higher cognitive capacities associated with humanity, emerged in order to gain advantage via deception and manipulation, what does that say about human nature?  At our core, are we all just sneaky, misleading, and selfish creatures?  Or is it possible that capacities for empathy, compassion, and real acts of altruism emerged as consciousness developed further?  I’m not really sure what I think, and I realize this is not entirely relevant to animal ethics, but I found it interesting nonetheless.