ASEBL Journal – Volume 10 Issue 1, January 2014
evolutionarily adaptive, but it requires a mechanism to constrain self-interest in order
to ensure group cohesion. Churchland examines the evolutionary history of neural
systems which extend the instincts for self-preservation, first to offspring and genetic
relatives, and eventually to the social group composed of both genetic kin and non-kin
on whom the individual depends for survival and reproduction. Churchland is
particularly interested in the role of neurochemicals, especially oxytocin and arginine
vasopressin, in constructing emotional bonds between parents and children, parents
and parents, and even allo-parents caring for offspring that are not their own. Citing
studies involving a range of animal species – rats, rhesus monkeys, even fruit flies –
Churchland explores the powerful, if complex, influence of oxytocin and vasopressin
on animal behavior. Her favorite exemplars of the social effects of neurochemistry are
the monogamous prairie voles and their promiscuous cousins, the montane voles. Not
only do the two species seem to differ in little more than their brains’ stocks of
oxytocin, but artificially increasing the oxytocin levels in the montane vole turns
players into family men – just as reducing oxytocin in prairie voles brings on a sevenyear-itch. While demonstrably influential in bonding behavior, such neuropeptides are
not simple, one-cause-one-effect agents. Male rats who receive a shot of oxytocin
become tender toward in-group members, but they simultaneously become hostile
toward intruders. Oxytocin does not turn an individual into a universal altruist so
much as it extends the individual’s self-promoting instincts (somatic effort) to family
and, potentially, to immediate community. Just as parental affection may be expanded
into care for others, the child’s feelings of attachment to the mother expand to create
fears of social isolation in the adult – the origins of shame and approval-seeking.
“Depending on ecological conditions and fitness considerations,” Churchland
contends, “strong caring for the well-being of offspring has in some mammalian
species extended further to encompass kin or mates or friends or even strangers, as the
circle widens. This widening of other-caring in social behavior marks the emergence
of what eventually flowers into morality” (14).
As the social circle expands to include non-genetic relatives, brains that evolved with
greater social intelligence yielded an adaptive advantage.
Expanded memory capacities greatly enhanced the animal’s ability to
anticipate trouble and to plan more effectively. These modifications support
the urge to be together, as well as the development of a ‘conscience’ tuned to
local social practices; that is, a set of social responses, shaped by learning,
that are strongly regulated by approval and disapproval, and by the emotions,
more generally. More simply, mammals are motivated to learn social
practices because the negative reward system, regulating