This is a very interesting philosophical question. What is moral? What is consciousness, what is altruism? Religious people often claim that atheist cannot have any moral, since there is no God no one can give us a moral code, hence we are allowed to do anything that pleases us. !!!?
They also claim that Darwins evolutionary theory (the survival of the strongest and fittest) must lead to this terribel conclusion - if you hit first – you are more likely to survive….
But resent studies have been able to show that those mammals that have a sense of compassion within their group/pack, will have a slightly better chance to survive. If the members of the group/pack do love one another and are willingly to sacrifice themselves for the other members the group the likelihood for the group to increase their numbers is great.
It looks like moral, consciousness, altruism, are important factors as well not only for humans but it works also for many animals. Examples and test has been made on dolphins, elephants, apes, and other specimens.
But sometimes things doesn’t work the way we’ve hoped for. In an experiment in Africa a group of scientist feeded daily a pack of Apes with just enough bananas to keep every monkey satisfied. Everything went good for a long time, the Alpha male let everyone in the pack have their banana and the group was prosperous. One day the researcher decided to make un experiment. Instead of feeding the apes sparsely they transported a full container to the group of monkeys.
Then the Alpha male turned banana (see the joke?). He wouldn´t let any other of the monkeys even come in the neighborhood of his treasure. In fact he showed tendencies to be able to kill any of those trying to sneak just one of his bananas.
What could we learn from this experiment? Could it be that greed corrupt humans? Could it be that if you think that you can survive without the company and help from others?, you might as well let them starve and suffer?
Bugbear