Warfare An Invention or a Biological Necessity - 776 Words

Warfare: an Invention or Biological? â€Å"Warfare is only an invention, not a biological necessity† - Margaret Mead Instinctivist theories on human aggressiveness often promote the notion that warfare is in the nature of humankind and therefore cannot be prevented. However Margaret Mead eloquently refuted this idea in her renowned essay Warfare: an Invention – Not a Biological Necessity. Mead states, â€Å"War is inevitable unless we change our social system and outlaw classes, the struggle for power, and possessions; and in the event of our success warfare would disappear, as a symptom vanishes when the disease is cured.† Through this statement Mead makes it clear that because aggression and subsequently warfare is a learned invention, it can be avoided. For the purposes of this essay, aggression will be defined as â€Å"a response that delivers noxious stimuli to another organism.† This essay will outline how and why aggression, and thus warfare, is not biological and is rather a behaviour that is learned as a reaction to social stimuli. Furthermore, it will be explained that violence is used by societies as a political weapon to achieve ostensible objectives. There are two main arguments supporting the idea that aggression and violence are biological and therefore inevitable in our world. In their essay Genetic Seeds of Warfare: Evolution, Nationalism and Patriotism, Paul Shaw and Wong Yuwa, in a darwinistic approach to human nature , argue that aggression is natural in the animalShow MoreRelatedWar Is An Invention Of Man Caused By The Aggression Instinct1531 Words   |  7 Pagesredundant amount of people have accepted inventions as attributes of humanity itself. In this case Mead stands against crowds who believe war is a biological necessity or a sociological inevitability, and argues that war is an invention of man caused by the aggression instinct. War becomes such a habit of man that different types of war spawn, because society resorts to war regularly. Mead believes war is inevitable, unless war is destroyed by a better invention built through humanity itself. To acceptRead MoreWhat Causes War1271 Words   |  5 PagesIs war an invention or is it a biological need? We engaged in this intriguing argument with several view. Some scholars tried to proof that warfare is a biological necessity but others assert that war is something that is created. A number of studies define warfare as an act of violence, a struggle, or a test of ability between groups, for a particular end. However, the general conception remains that war is inevitable and is universal. Generalization about this particular phenomenon may be problematicRead MoreEssay on Clearly Pacifist, Clearly Credible1139 Words   |  5 Pagesnot make this assumption. In fact, she denies its credibility in her essay â€Å"Warfare is Only an Invention – Not a Biological Necessity.† In this essay, Margaret Mead combines a great deal of logos and ethos with limited pathos to support her pacifist claim that warfare is merely an invention of man, and not a need found in the v ery nature of man. While Mead’s claim does not agree with the most common beliefs about warfare, its mixture of logos and ethos is as strong as the bricks and mortar of aRead MoreTheories on War1060 Words   |  5 Pageskills one man, he is condemned as unrighteous and must pay for his crime with his own life†¦ if he kills a hundred men, he is a hundred times as unrighteous and should pay for his crime with a hundred lives† (254). In his writing, Against Offensive Warfare, Mo Tzu wrote with â€Å"analogies between war and individual acts of violence or theft† (253), to contribute in his argument in how people can justify their act on violence on others in war. In contrast to Kenzaburo Oe and Mo Tzu, Sun Tzu In the ArtRead MoreThe Science behind War1970 Words   |  8 Pagesof the fittest. And now in modern thinking and technology, we are now able to find how the human mind came up with an idea such as violence. How humans first used violence for survival then it turned into strategies then from there came with the inventions of weapons. Firstly what is violence that causes things as war? Violence comes in the amydola, a part in the brain that deals with emotions. It is what gives you the urge to do something in that quarter of a second between the event and theRead MoreFrustration and Aggression: Strive for Satisfaction Essay1237 Words   |  5 Pagesinstigated. Violence does not always lead to warfare but is a form of conflict that given certain influences can manifest into warfare. I strongly agree with the argument that warfare has played a key role in human evolution, leading to part of our nature as a species. Secure satisfaction is the key to a society free of warfare. Due to various factors in life, this satisfaction is unattainable, thus leading to frustration, aggression, violence, and in time, warfare. Given a desperate context, a conflictRead MoreThe Book, Germs, Guns, And Steel: The Fates Of Human Societies,1355 Words   |  6 Pagesusing watercraft allowing them to settle Australia and New Guinea. Diamond goes in depth about Francisco Pizarro and the conquest he and his men had with the Inca Empire. Pizarro had used steel weapons, horses, and even the earliest forms of biological warfare, like smallpox in blankets to infect the Incans. Francisco Pizarro had also used ships and writing for communication in the conquest of the Incan Empire. Diamond then asks what allowed Pizarro, and more importantly the society and culture heRead MoreWhy People From Europe And Asia Have Developed Faster Around The Americas, Australia, And Africa3086 Words   |  13 Pagesagriculture, metal, and writing were all from warm parts of Eurasia and the most advanced civilizations of the Americas were also in warm climates. Ultimately Diamond argues that human advancements came from environmental differences and not from biological differences. It was geographical advantages that allowed Europeans to gain the guns, germs, and steel, that enabled them to be a world power.â€Æ' Chapter 1: Up To The Starting Line This chapter starts off by explaining the evolution of the first humanRead MoreTechnology and Its Impact on Society2160 Words   |  9 PagesMankind has evolved from the essence that separates humans from beasts: the ability to use the mind for reason. Reason is the ability to analyze, create, deduce, and formulate. It is reason that enables human beings to strive to invent; it is through invention that mankind has developed society and created a better world. we could say that technology is the sum total of instrumentally useful culturallytransmissible information. Technology, a word with Greek origins, is defined as, â€Å"the practical applicationRead MoreTechnology and Its Impact on Society2170 Words   |  9 PagesMankind has evolved from the essence that separates humans from beasts: the ability to use the mind for reason. Reason is the ability to analyze, create, deduce, and formulate. It is reason that enables human beings to strive to invent; it is through invention that mankind has developed society and created a better world. we could say that technology is the sum total of instrumentally useful culturallytransmissible information. Technology, a word with Greek origins, is defined as, â€Å"the practical application