Cunning: a mental skill that evolved to help us in the struggle for survival and advantage

"Cunning" is a mental skill that evolved over millions of years to help us and our family group in the struggle for survival and advantage in the natural environment (which included rival groups of humans), but which, since the advent of civilisation a few thousand years ago, is now focused on the same struggle within the artificial socio-economic environment.

This shift in focus of behavioural programming has profound, but barely recognised, consequences, explaining, among other things, why we persist in giving priority to the economy (the household of man and part of the socio-economic environment) instead of to ecology (the household of our planet and constituting the natural environment), when it should be obvious (were we not in a state of collective denial and afraid of biting the hand that feeds us) that for medium and long-term human survival it has to be the other way around.

Moral behaviour developed to give us some control over our instinctive behaviour and the inappropriate use of our skills, but does not remove the "itch" to use them, whether just for the pleasure of it, or for some advantage (moral or otherwise) that it may offer.

"Cunning" is a complex form of behaviour which can be used amorally, morally or immorally. Play and games provide us with the opportunity to indulge and practice our skills in a moral, socially harmless, way, just as dogs and other mammalian carnivores practice their hunting skills on each other (and us, sometimes, if we have them as pets) in a playful, harmless way.

I'm sorry if this sounds more like a lecture than a comment, but the main the point I wish to make, about the unrecognised consequences of the transposition of Homo sapiens' behaviour from the natural to an artificial socio-economic environment, is rather important. It is no exaggeration to say that our survival depends on us understanding (and then acting upon) it. Who, if not social scientists like yourself, are in the best position to do this?

What I am saying is so profound and, once you recognise it, so obvious, that it is difficult to believe that we could have overlooked it for so long; but that's human psychology - another of your social sciences.

To: Thinkingallowed@bbc.co.uk Re: "Cunning": a mental skill that evolved to help us in the struggle for survival and advantage Date: Thursday 27 April 06


Dear Laurie et al. at Thinking Allowed, BBC Radio 4 "Cunning" is a mental skill that evolved over millions of years to help us and our family group in the struggle for survival and advantage in the natural environment (which included rival groups of humans), but which, since the advent of civilisation a few thousand years ago, is now focused on the same struggle within the artificial socio-economic environment. This shift in focus of behavioural programming has profound, but barely recognised, consequences, explaining, among other things, why we persist in giving priority to the economy (the household of man and part of the socio-economic environment) instead of to ecology (the household of our planet and constituting the natural environment), when it should be obvious (were we not in a state of collective denial and afraid of biting the hand that feeds us) that for medium and long-term human survival it has to be the other way around. Moral behaviour developed to give us some control over our instinctive behaviour and the inappropriate use of our skills, but does not remove the "itch" to use them, whether just for the pleasure of it, or for some advantage (moral or otherwise) that it may offer. "Cunning" is a complex form of behaviour which can be used amorally, morally or immorally. Play and games provide us with the opportunity to indulge and practice our skills in a moral, socially harmless, way, just as dogs and other mammalian carnivores practice their hunting skills on each other (and us, sometimes, if we have them as pets) in a playful, harmless way. I'm sorry if this sounds more like a lecture than a comment, but the main the point I wish to make, about the unrecognised consequences of the transposition of Homo sapiens' behaviour from the natural to an artificial socio-economic environment, is rather important. It is no exaggeration to say that our survival depends on us understanding (and then acting upon) it. Who, if not social scientists like yourself, are in the best position to do this? What I am saying is so profound and, once you recognise it, so obvious, that it is difficult to believe that we could have overlooked it for so long; but that's human psychology - another of your social sciences. www.spaceship-earth.org BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed