“It is not merely the nature of some of his purposes which have endangered man, but purpose itself. Conscious purpose, which aims toward the achievement of specific goals, does not usually take into account the circular structure of cause and effect which characterises the universe, and this cognitive failure leads to disruption.

This is a gloomy analyses, for surely purposefulness, which I take to be a concomitant of consciousness, must have been strangle selected for during much of the 3,000,000 years of man’s span on Earth. Man’s purposefulness could hardly have endangered most of the ecosystems in which he participated as a hunter and gatherer. Moreover, the foresight which forms a component of his purposefulness must have contributed substantially to his survival. A trait that has been adaptive for so long cannot easily be renounced; indeed if purposefulness is a concomitant of consciousness, its renunciation is impossible.”

Roy A. Rappaport