Question

what qualifiers (limits) does he establish for his thesis? "Better Angels of Our Nature" by Dr. Pinker.

Answer 1

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is a 2011 book by Dr. Steven Pinker, in which the author argues that violence in the world has declined both in the long run and in the short run and suggests explanations as to why this had occurred. The book uses data simply documenting declining violence across time and geography. This paints a picture of massive declines in violence of all forms, from war, to improved treatment of children. He highlights the role of nation-state monopolies on force, of commerce, of increased literacy and communication, as well as a rise in a rational problem-solving orientation as possible causes of this decline in violence. He notes that, paradoxically, our impression of violence has not tracked this decline,perhaps because of increased communication, and that further decline is not inevitable, but is contigent on forces harnessing our better motivations such as empathy and increases in reason.

The Book's title was taken from the ending of U.S President Abraham Lincoln's first inagural address. Pinker uses the phrase as a metophor for four human motivations- empathy, self-control, the moral sense, and the reason -that he writes, can orient ua away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism.

Pinker presents a large amount of data (and statistical analysis thereof) that, he argues, demonstrate that violence has been in decline over millennia and that the present is probably the most peaceful time in the history of the human species. The declline in violence, he argues is enormous in magnitude, visible on both long and short time scales, and found in many domains, including military conflict, homicide, genocide, torture, criminal justice, and treatment of children, homosexuals, animals and racial and ethnic minorities. He stresses that "The decline, to be sure, has not been smooth; it has not brought violence down to zero; and its is not guranteed to continue.

Pinker argues that the radical declines in violent behavior that his documents do not result from major changes in human biology or cognition. He specifically rejects the view that humans are necessarily violent, and thus have to undergo radical change in order to became more peaceable. However, Pinker also rejects what he regards as the simplistic nature versus nurture arguments, which would imply that the radical change must therefore have come purely from external sources. Instead, he argues, "The way to explain the decline of violence is to identify the changes in our culture and material milieu that have given our peaceable motives the upper hand.

Pinker identifies five "historical forces" that have favoured "our peaceable motives" and "have driven the multiple declines in violence: They are :

• The Leviathan - the rise of the modern nation-state and judiciary "with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force", which "can defuse the individual temptation of exploitative attack, inhibit the impulse for revenge, and circumvent....self serving biases".

• Commerce - the rise of "technological progress allowing the exchange of goods and services over longer distances and larger groups of trading partners", so that "other people became more valuable alive than dead" and "are less likely to became targets of demonisation and dehumanisation".

• Feminisation - Increasing respect for "the interests and values of women".

• Cosmopolitinism - the rise of forces such as literacy, mobility, and mass media, which "can prompt people to take the perspectives of people unlike themselves and to expand their circle of sympathy to embrace them".

• The Escalator of Reason - an "intensifying application of knowledge and rationality to human affairs", which can force people to recognise the futility of cycles of violence, to ramp down the privileging of their own interests over others, and to reframe violence as a problem to be solved rather than a contest to be won.

The central thesisof "Better Angels" is that our era is less cruel and more peaceful than any previous period of human existence. The decline in violence holds for violence in the family, in neighbourhoods, between tribes and between states.