Derek Turner, a professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, spoke Monday evening about the evolution of the conscience as part of Harpur College’s EVoS lecture series.
Turner looked at what Charles Darwin said about ethics, conscience and the evolution of man. According to him, Darwin did not consider the conscience, or the ability to reflect, monitor, approve or disapprove of one’s actions, to be a purely natural adaptation.
“When you look at what Darwin really says about conscience and how it evolved, it turns out, that he thinks that conscience is an evolutionary spandrel, which basically means a by-product,” Turner said.
Instead of looking at Darwin within an evolutionary and biological framework, Turner studied Darwin from a philosophical perspective.
“I kind of treat Darwin like a major philosopher when I read him,” he said. “When I do that, I find that often what Darwin is saying is a little bit more interesting than what you get if you read, say, popular discussions of evolution and ethics.”
Turner argued that Darwin looked at conscience as a by-product of a mixture of traits like language, habit and memory.
According to Turner, social instincts, which create a need for acceptance and cause humans to sympathize with one another, do not distinguish humans from other species. Instead, humans combine social instincts with heightened mental ability, which defines the human species.
Turner said that Darwin believed that humans would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience. But, he argued that natural selection affects social instincts and memory and that selection creates conscience.
Turner’s interest in the evolution of conscience started when he taught a course on evolution and ethics. He said that he chose to focus on Darwin because of his prominence in modern society.
“He’s such an important figure in our culture that I think it’s really important to read what he says very carefully and not be too quick to assume that we really know what he’s saying,” Turner said.
Alexander Scaringe, a senior majoring in neuroscience, said that Turner’s lecture could be applied more broadly to evolution.
“By hypothesizing that things like social instinct, memory and altruism influence a conscience, Turner opens doors to study not only the evolutionary history of a conscience, but also it’s variability among cultures and different species,” Scaringe said.
Krystin Ferrara attended the lecture as part of her Current Topics portion of her Evolutionary Topics class.
“When you write cited papers, and look at all these names, you don’t really think anything of it,” said Ferrara, a senior majoring in neuroscience. “But then you realize that they’re actual people, and you actually connect it. When you meet them in person, it makes this type of seminar a lot more interesting.”