Third Writing Assignment. EVOLUTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS.

Professor's Name
Philosophy
7th December 2020
EVOLUTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Evolution and consciousness are intertwined in trying to address the origin of living matter on the planet. During the dominant behaviorism years, consciousness had been associated with superstition. Still, with much investigation and attention accorded to it by different modern scientists, it has once again become scientifically defensible in exploring evolution. However, it remains a dicey balance describing animal consciousness as other scholars critique it for lack of independent norms.
Charles Darwin, the greatest proponent of the theory of evolution in the 19th century, asserts that "life did not emerge by chance but by the slow and gradual steps of cumulative natural selection" (Darwin, 1859; Dawkins, 1986). The natural selection and survival principle for the fittest is vitally responsible for the survival of various species and explicit individuals' recurring attributes within a species. Evolution occurs naturally by the differential selection of reproductive capacity and survival traits an animal has adopted within its inhabited environment. Darwin describes it as "descent with medication"-it is both non-purposive and non-random. The ecological habitat of a specific animal is not only limited to the physical environment, but other animals that prey, compete for resources, predate, and even animals of the same species that interact in a co-operative or competitive manner (Crook, 1980).
In trying to expound and simplify the history of animals, evolution, some researchers employ "the tree of life analogy." It is quite simplistic yet complex in discerning the common origination and the eventual achievement of totally different species without any close resemblance or traits. A conical or an inverted triangular-shaped tree of life with irregular branches is employed. A single root gives rise to a ray of other roots that fuse to form a formidable stem; the stem eventually yields different independent but interdependent branches enclosed in the inverted triangular or cone-shaped tree of life. Evolutionary, a single species splits into two parts, and consequently, each of them multiplies further if they do not die out. Suppose the split species survive and repeat the sequence. In that case, it might result in two or multiple groupings of species. Each group has distinctive characteristics to be identified with conventional name-the birds, mammals, and so on. Like in the tree of life, Tiny little splits resulted in big differences in ...