This chapter argues that Darwin's thought plays a central role in the history of the conscience and that the history of the conscience plays a central role in Darwin's thought. A core project of his later works is to show how the human moral faculties could have evolved, since such a faculty seemed to pose a decisive objection to the theory of natural selection. But the theory of group selection Darwin developed to explain the origins of morality had the inadvertent effect of inducing skepticism about instinctive moral feeling. Such skepticism transformed Western moral thought: although appeals to moral “intuitions” and naturalistic theories of ethics would return, after Darwin's analysis of the conscience never again could the bare fact of moral feeling offer evidence of the divine design of humanity. In ways thinkers are still considering, Darwin forced moral philosophy to confront its fundamental earthliness.

As Mark Twain put it, “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted.” Sorry, Mark, there is a motive in this chapter’s narrative and we are now beyond the statute of limitations for your intended prosecution. The overriding motive is to illustrate how current explanations of what moves and directs human behavior are mainly cognitive. Earlier explanations, detailed in the first pages of the chapter, dealt with needs and drives, reflexes, and instincts, tendencies toward hedonism and eudemonic goals (Maslow’s self-actualization), and a need to maintain an optimal level of arousal. Current social/cognitive views of motivation look at how the ability to anticipate, to evaluate, to foresee consequences, to determine personal goals and develop intentions based on the values and costs associated with these goals contribute to an intriguing personal calculus that underlies many of our most important behaviors. These are key concepts, the chapter argues, given that one of the important goals of the educational enterprise is to develop self-regulated learners – learners who set their own goals, select and develop strategies to reach them, and implement and monitor these strategies, changing them as necessary.