Evolution of consciousness and morals.?

Consciousness (awareness of self) has many useful purposes in terms of evolution. For example, whilst many animals instinctively hide from predators or try to creep up on prey, an ability to project yourself into the mind of a predator or prey and "see yourself as others see you" has obvious survival potential.

This can be extended to many levels, from "if I stand on that hill I'll be able to see into the next valley", to the complex drawing of "mind maps" placing an individual into an environment or conducting the kind of thought exercise which goes along the lines of "I know that he knows that she thinks she knows... etc etc"

Morals are, in effect, exhibited by many animals, particularly those living in social groups. Any animal which doesn't conform to acceptable social norms (taking turns looking out for predators, sharing food, etc etc) is soon likely to become an outcast and have a much lower life expectancy (and breeding potential) as a result.

Morals are not fixed but exist only in the context of a social group. For example, murder is only murder if it takes place within the tribe but killing a member of another tribe might be regarded as an act of heroism or cause for celebration. Again, conformity in social groups is the basis of morals and has obvious evolutionary advantages.

Once self-awareness evolved, with it came a consciousness of morals - in effect what early humans did by instinct in terms of social conformity became a matter of conscious choice. Man began to think "what if I took my share of food but did less than my share of work - how much can I get away with?".

EDIT: It's not so much a learned skill as a way we have evolved to build a model of the World around us inside our heads. Small children can't do it because all the connections in their brains aren't yet in place - and how they are put in place is to some extent dependent on their early experiences