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Just to start with something relatively simple, how about an emotion like anger? I think it makes sense that since our distant ancestors were probably confronted with frequent direct threats to their survival, those who were inclined to focus all their energy and attention on lashing out at a threat (e.g. a predator) were more likely to survive and propogate this tendency toward anger. Of course, this may not be such a good thing anymore, since many threats we face in modern society are not best solved by an immediate lashing out. But along the lines of what Craig is suggesting, it seems that we can see how anger might have developed.

Todd

> From: Craig Tyler <tyler@mafalda.uchicago.edu>
> Organization: University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
> Reply-To: tyler@oddjob.uchicago.edu
> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:49:20 -0600
> To: science@lists.pdx.edu
> Subject: origins
>
> All
>
> At the end of the SII origins workshop this past saturday, we departed
> with a question still hanging. We were talking about Darwinian natural
> selection, and in particular how it could change the behavior or
> personality of a species. For example, imagine two clans of early
> homonids (which might evolve into modern humans). If one clan were more
> violent and the other more peaceful, perhaps the more violent clan would
> fight with each other or with other clans, and many of them would die
> before they had a chance to pass their violent genes along. the
> peaceful clan would reproduce more, by that logic, and subsequent
> generations would be predominantly peaceful. (This type of behavioral
> genetics has been documented in other species.)
>
> Along those lines, do you think it is possible to identify hypothetical
> evolutionary origins for modern human behavior? for your own behavior
> or that of people you know? in particular, I had some categories in
> mind:
>
> 1. laws and morals. for example, should evolution tend to weed out
> terrorists from the human population?
> 2. emotions. for example, is there a survival advantage for those who
> care about others? (could emotions be merely chemical in nature?
> consider prozac!)
> 3. sense of purpose. for example, the work week is 40+ hours, but we
> could feed and clothe everyone with much less work than that. where
> does our work ethic come from?
>
> Any ideas about any part of this question?
> CT