The debate about whether human behaviour is innately warlike and violent or peaceful and gentle is centuries old. It is no nearer resolution today than it was decades ago when far less was known about genetic influences on human behaviour. And it is unlikely to be resolved soon; partly because it is embedded in the much wider debate about nature versus nurture which of course incorporates a range of sensitive issues like gender and race; and partly because the arguments on both sides are strong enough to carry conviction. Those who argue for the inherently warlike and violent nature of man often cite Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes and of course Charles Darwin, but they can also get strong support from a large number of more recent authorities. Three of these can be cited by way of sample. First, geneticists have found experiments with laboratory animals show that if the more violent and aggressive of them are separated and interbred, that trait breeds true in subsequent generations: not only does the propensity to violence seem to help the fittest to survive but it’s in the genes.
Then, going to psycho-analysis, Sigmund Freud famously and categorically insisted that the inclination to aggression is original and instinctual, a sort of ‘death drive’ sourced in generations of sexual tensions within the family and which, presumably, also found its way into the genome. Third, this general viewpoint about violence was given a boost (and considerable respectability) when Konrad Lorenz, the originator of ethology and savant of behavioural biology, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Lorenz resolutely propounded the view that aggression is in the genes; it is not learnt from social cues or from the environment; it is species specific and inherited from our anthropoid ancestors. The arguments on the other side seem equally strong. Biology does suggest, contrary to Darwinian reasoning, that the survival of the fittest is not achieved by intra-specific killing; actually, altruism towards other members of the same species is quite common, as in birds that give alarm calls on the approach of a predator although their own lives are further endangered as a result; sociology has also demonstrated that human altruism is inborn.