Abstract
Humans are by nature social. And yet, we humans can be so cruel to each other. The dreadful wars of the last century: the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and so the list expands. Then there is the prejudice that members of one group show to members of other groups. Americans and slavery come at once to mind. So how do we explain the paradox? Why do such nice people do such awful things? I am an evolutionist, so I believe that the answers to the present are to be found in the past. Simply put, we humans were hunter-gatherers, and natural selection made us highly suited to our lifestyle. Then came agriculture and all changed. Our formerly efficient adaptations were too often not adequate for our new circumstances and lifestyles. Conflicts, group and individual, arose. I shall ask whether we can reconcile the tensions in our position. Can we move forward, bringing the knowledge of our biological past combined with the awareness of our cultural present to speak positively and creatively to the challenges that lie before us? I am ever an optimist. Is my optimism justified?
I have a book, Why We Hate: Understanding the Roots of Human Conflict, published by Oxford University Press, appearing at the same time as this chapter. I think it is one of the most important works I have written, discussing social issues with great impact on modern societies. Knowing only too well that today, thanks to electronic means of communicating, fewer and fewer are willing to read even relatively short books, as is mine, I am taking the opportunity to present a brief péecis, this chapter. It is probably overestimating the chances that readers of this chapter will be stimulated to read the whole book, but pursuing the impossible is what we philosophers do for a living.
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Ruse, M. (2024). Hatred: Why Do Such Nice People Do Such Awful Things?. In: Chakraborty, S. (eds) Human Minds and Cultures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56448-2_5
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