Smart choices make for better survival. One of the reason people dominate the animal kingdom is because they adapt to conditions and can predict consequences on better than stimulus-response basis. They can pose problems and see how various solutions will play out, probably, which many animals can't do. Some can.

Humans also have a stronger sense than most animals about wide-spectrum survival, thinking about families, groups and the species as a whole, and how to have better futures for them. While dogs will always recognize dogs, I doubt me that they think of dogdom very much, or make plans for the good of dog-kind.

There's not much said in Darwin about survival decisions beyond the individual organism, AFAIK. Doesn't mean he was wrong, though. Maybe just incomplete.


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