Journalartikel

Jahr der Veröffentlichung: 1995

Seiten: 397-412

Zeitschrift: Journal of social and evolutionary systems

Bandnummer: 18

Heftnummer: 4

ISSN: 1061-7361

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/1061-7361(95)90025-X

Verlag: JAI Press

Abstract: 
Altruistic solutions to moral conflicts lead to personal disadvantages for the individual's own life and reproduction, whereas selfish solutions can coincide with feelings of guilt, which can also lead to life impairments. The known evolutionary mechanisms of reciprocity and kin selection are only able to partly explain this paradox. We have developed the hypothesis that the human conscience does not serve the selfish-gene interests of the individual having a conscience, but the selfish-gene interests of this individual's parents. The conscience evolved within the context of parent/offspring conflict over altruistic tendencies. As an extended phenotype of parental genes, it governs parental control on the offspring's behavior in a lasting way, even when there are no longer any direct possibilities for parental manipulation. As parental and child interests are not identical, the conscience can lead to self-damaging behavior. Interesting parallels to the psychoanalytical structure model of the personality become visible.

Harvard-Zitierstil: Voland, E. and Voland, R. (1995) Parent-offspring conflict, the extended phenotype, and the evolution of conscience, JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMS, 18(4), pp. 397-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/1061-7361(95)90025-X

APA-Zitierstil: Voland, E., & Voland, R. (1995). Parent-offspring conflict, the extended phenotype, and the evolution of conscience. JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMS. 18(4), 397-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/1061-7361(95)90025-X