ABSTRACT
Evolutionary theory and social Darwinism, it is widely agreed, exerted a seminal influence on late nineteenth and early twentieth century social thought. The basic assumptions of the social Darwinists and the social imperialists who readily exploited their ideas were: the evolutionary processes of natural selection and the survival of the fittest applied to the development of races, nations, and empires. Almost every scientific discipline has produced some discovery or hypothesis relevant to an understanding of human violence and aggression. Modern theorists of the relative deprivation school of aggression have been preoccupied with exploring the implications of frustration-aggression theory for the analysis of civil violence. The instinctivists' neglect of the differences between animals and humans—their willful dismissal of the human psyche, personality, passions, and character traits—naturally renders their approach incapable of dealing adequately with pathological violence. In Why Men Rebel, T. R. Gurr disparages the notion that ideologies "cause" violence.
