Biology and Philosophy 13 (2):263-288 (1998)
Abstract |
Almost all of the themes contained in E.O.Wilson's sociobiological writing on war and human aggression were prefigured in Anglo-American bio-social discourse, c. 1880–1919. Instinct theory – stemming from animal psychology and the genetics revolution – encouraged the belief that pugnacity had been programmed into the ancient part of the human brain as a result of evolutionary pressures dating from prehistory. War was seen to be instinct-driven, and genocidal fighting postulated as a eugenic force in early human evolution. War was explained in distinctly modern sociobiological terms as adaptive behaviour springing from territorial urges, crowding, competition for resources and reproductive advantage, ethnocentrism and pseudo-speciation.
|
Keywords | Darwinism aggression instinct sociobiology |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2004 |
DOI | 10.1023/A:1006586919613 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.Edward O. Wilson - 1975 - Journal of the History of Biology 33 (3):577-584.
The Study of Instinct.N. Tinbergen - 1954 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 5 (17):72-76.
Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior.Daniel C. Dennett - 1989 - Journal of the History of Biology 22 (2):361-367.
View all 23 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
No citations found.
Similar books and articles
Aggressiveness: A Critical Examination of the Concept of the Instinct of Pugnacity.M. R. Thompson - 1936 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 14 (1):1 – 31.
The Sociobiology Muddle:On Human Nature. Edward O. Wilson; The Sociobiology Debate. Arthur L. Caplan; Human Sociobiology: A Holistic Approach. Daniel G. Freedman; Sociobiology: Sense or Nonsense? Michael Ruse. [REVIEW]Robert L. Simon - 1982 - Ethics 92 (2):327-.
The Just War Idea: The State of the Question.James Turner Johnson - 2006 - Social Philosophy and Policy 23 (1):167-195.
Defining War for the 21st Century.Steven Metz & Phillip R. Cuccia (eds.) - 2011 - Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College.
Ethology, Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology.Paul Edmund Griffiths - 2011 - In Sahotra Sarkar & Anya Plutynski (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. West Sussex, UK: Wiley/Blackwell. pp. 393-414.
The Laws of War.Jeff McMahan - 2010 - In Samantha Besson & John Tasioulas (eds.), The Philosophy of International Law. Oxford University Press.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2009-01-28
Total views
39 ( #263,626 of 2,420,820 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #543,487 of 2,420,820 )
2009-01-28
Total views
39 ( #263,626 of 2,420,820 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #543,487 of 2,420,820 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads