It may simply be that male humans are biologically programmed to fight.
Summary:
In an essay entitled “A Few Words Apropos of the Book War and Peace ”, published in the magazine Russian Archive in 1868, (which is included as an Appendix in the Vintage Classics translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky), Tolstoy noted that a penchant for warfare might simply be a biological trait of males in our species.
Quote from the P&V translation:
“Why did millions of men set about killing each other, if it has been known ever since the world began that it is both physically and morally bad? Because it was so inevitably necessary that, in fulfilling it, men were fulfilling that elementary zoological law which the bees fulfill by exterminating each other in the fall, and according to which male animals exterminate each other. No other answer can be given to this terrible question.”
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!
Second Epilogue, key concept note 14
It may simply be that male humans are biologically programmed to fight.
Summary:
In an essay entitled “A Few Words Apropos of the Book War and Peace ”, published in the magazine Russian Archive in 1868, (which is included as an Appendix in the Vintage Classics translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky), Tolstoy noted that a penchant for warfare might simply be a biological trait of males in our species.
Quote from the P&V translation:
“Why did millions of men set about killing each other, if it has been known ever since the world began that it is both physically and morally bad? Because it was so inevitably necessary that, in fulfilling it, men were fulfilling that elementary zoological law which the bees fulfill by exterminating each other in the fall, and according to which male animals exterminate each other. No other answer can be given to this terrible question.”
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!