ABSTRACT
Why do people kill one another? Many previous writers have hoped to illuminate the murky subject of human violence by theorizing about human nature. Their theories seem to have been more successful at provoking hostility than explaining it. Thinkers from St. Paul to Konrad Lorenz have been taken to task, with considerable justice, for misanthropic moralizing, for logical circularity, and for defending the interests of the privileged. We think the conceptual tools are available to do a better job.
