Are humans violent by nature? Paradigmatic reflections on ‘human nature’

Hobbes

• Trying to understand humans in scientific terms

• The war of all against all

  • Has to do with how human beings are

• Man is to man like a wolf

• Solution is an all powerful states

• Humans are quiet equal in terms of strength which gives them a complicated situation

• Dont know what the other one is going to do

• If any two men desire the same thing that they cannot both enojy they become enemies

• In the way to their end which is their own conversation and their delication only endevour to destroy or subdue one another

The war of all against all

in the condition of war there is no society, continual fear, and the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short

Solution is an all powerful states

• Give the fight to the state and the state ensures that the people willl be punished

• We don’t have to fight, the state does it for us

• We have an all powerful figure

Diffidence and Anticipation

• People naturally distrust one another and act preemptively to secure their safety by gaining power. 

• This can involve using force or cunning to dominate others until no threats remain

Power and Conquest

• Some people take pleasure in expanding their power beyond what is necessary for survival – while other don’t 

• This forces others to invade or expand their own power to maintain security. 

Lack of Common Authority

• In a society without a central authority, mistrust and conflict arise. 

• People expect to be valued as highly as they value themselves, leading to disputes when they feel disrespected. 

Three Causes of Conflict

• Competition: Fighting for resources and wealth. 

• Diffidence: Fighting for safety and self-preservation. 

• Glory: Fighting for honor, reputation, and respect, even over trivial matters. 

Conclusion

Hobbes believes human nature leads to conflict in the absence of a powerful authority (sovereign) to maintain order

Rousseau

• Humans are good nature

• When someone placed a fence and said this is mine that is where a human misery started

• Nothing is more gentle than his primative state – muna

• What we see as far as we know

• Try to solve this peacefully

• Organize society so it can flourish again

• Over come private property want

• Create something to establish peace

• Maybe we are destroying peace with the state

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF INEQUALITY AMONG MEN,  
AND IS IT AUTHORISED BY NATURAL LAW? 

• THE first man who found himself a piece of ground and said: “this is mine”, and found people simple enough believing him, was the real founder of civil society. 

• If humanity had rejected this idea of ownership early on, many wars, crimes and misfortunes could’ve been avoided

• The concept of property didn’t appear suddenly, but they had significant skills and knowledge 

• Rousseau wanted to go further back into history to see the process of human development that led to the idea of property 

• The first feelings humans had was awareness of their own existence, and their primary concern was survival. 

• Humans having children was purely instinct, had nothing to do with love or emotion. 

• Bodily image and reflection started with a sense of security à if you’re strong and big, more security.

• First expressions of the human hearts - unity of families under one roof 

• Men and women became “inequal” or had different jobs at their house 

• In amusement and dancing - people started to consider the rest and wished they’d be considered too - whoever was the prettiest, strongest… - THIS was the first step towards inequality 

• As societies formed, men became more brutal 

• Punishments more cruel, easier to offend 

• Before law, men took matters into their own hands

• as soon as one man began to need help of another – and the other man saw advantage in that… equality disappeared. Property and jobs introduced and forests became parks.

• In short, the passage traces the development of human society from primitive simplicity to the complex structures of property, inequality, and moral behavior, ultimately leading to the decline of human happiness. 

Steven Pinker

• Modern echo of hobbes

• Trying to revive him

• Hobbes is right but we are improving thanks to civilization, especially the enlightenment, a strong decline of violence even in the 20 century

• If human beings are let lose they will be totally off track

• Built a book off triggers of violence

  Five inner demons

• Instrumental violence

• Dominance

• Revenge

• Sadism

  • Twisted mind of violence

• Ideology

  • People have ideas – i think the world would be better if...

• Things we have to deal with in ourselves

Four better angels

• Empathy

  • What is going on with someone else

  • Relate to that

• Self control

  • Self restrains

  • May want to dominate but restrain

• Morality

  • Your own morality

  • What is right and wrong

• Reason

  • Calculate consequences

Five historical forces

Somehow make us more peaceful

• States

  • withing territory they can prevent violence with threat of violence

  • disfunctional states are dangerous

  • obey the law of the country

• commerce

  • there are people who want to trade

  • have something each one needs so they can trade

  • tends to become a part of shared order

• Feminization

  • Male dominance was strong

  • What are the important values in a society

  •  Survive in war and being in war

  • The value scales in many countries is male dominance

• Cosmopolitanism

  • Mobility, literacy, media

  • Getting to know much more about other cultures and other people

  • We have the idea we should respect them

  • Direct access from the media

• Knowledge/rationality/education

  • We know about violence and the cause of it

  • We can handle ourselves better

The better angels of our nature

• Violence has declined over long stretches of time – from the waging of wars to the spanking of children 

• The historical path of violence made us understand more how life is 

• How are we to understand the violence in the world as positive or negative depends on our conception of human nature 

• Violence HAS decreased - knowing that invites skepticism, incredulity and sometimes anger. 

• Images of slaughter is more likely to get stuck in our heads than images of old people dying peacefully in their beds. 

• No matter how small the percentage of slaughter is, it always ends up with numbers of them filled in the news.

• Too many kinds of violence have moved in the same direction for it to be a coincidence 

• Could it be because of advance in peacefulness? Change in technology, governance, commerce or knowledge? 

Endogenous variables

Factors inside the system that are influenced by what they are trying to explain (e.g., violence might decline because society became more peaceful).

Exogenous variables

Factors from outside the system that trigger changes (e.g., external forces like technological advancements or trade). Can also mean new ideas are conceived and take a life of their own.

De waal

• Based on observational research among higher primates

• Important biologists

• Agains the veneer theory of human peacefulness – hobbes and pinker

• Biological basis for empathy

• Survival of the fittest

• Humans have capacity for violence but its not the whole picture

• Naturally inclined towards empathy , cooperation

• Both violence and peace are in our biology

• Which one is expressed depends on the social context

Veneer theory

• Human morality and peaceful brahviour is a layer that covers our true violent nature

• Humans are aggressive, competative

• Our morality is a mask that can disaapear under pressure

• Our ethical behaviour is not rooted in biology but our aggressiveness is

Instead of veneer theory

• Russian doll model

• Increasing levels of mutual understanding with the emergence of consciousness

• Feeling with the othe – emotional contagion

• Understanding what the other feels – cognitive empathy

• Fully placing yourself in the shoes of other - attribution

Russian doll model

• describes layers of empathy and emotions

• Basic automatic responses to more specific actions and these capacities are rooted in our biology