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The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
Ebook369 pages7 hours

The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War

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Almost 200 million human beings, mostly civilians, have died in wars over the last century, and there is no end of slaughter in sight.
The Most Dangerous Animal asks what it is about human nature that makes it possible for human beings to regularly slaughter their own kind. It tells the story of why all human beings have the potential to be hideously cruel and destructive to one another. Why are we our own worst enemy? The book shows us that war has been with us---in one form or another---since prehistoric times, and looking at the behavior of our close relatives, the chimpanzees, it argues that a penchant for group violence has been bred into us over millions of years of biological evolution. The Most Dangerous Animal takes the reader on a journey through evolution, history, anthropology, and psychology, showing how and why the human mind has a dual nature: on the one hand, we are ferocious, dangerous animals who regularly commit terrible atrocities against our own kind, on the other, we have a deep aversion to killing, a horror of taking human life. Meticulously researched and far-reaching in scope and with examples taken from ancient and modern history, The Most Dangerous Animal delivers a sobering lesson for an increasingly dangerous world.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 7, 2007
ISBN9781429994637
The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
Author

David Livingstone Smith

Dr. David Livingstone Smith is the author of Why We Lie and The Most Dangerous Animal. He is professor of philosophy and cofounder and director of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Studies at the University of New England. He and his wife live in Portland, Maine.

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Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book over-promises and under-delivers on its premise: to analyze how human nature leads to war. However, it does provide a very light overview of the subject and therefore offers an entry-point to readers who have not thought about man's inherent aggressiveness and its implications.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very interesting book concerning war and human nature. I suggest it to all.

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The Most Dangerous Animal - David Livingstone Smith

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