Aggression In Good Natured By Frans De Waal

Throughout Good Natured by Frans de Waal, de Waal adopts a perspective seeking to understand attributes and behaviors of humans and other animals by linking them to an organism’s ability to survive. This standpoint is one known as the evolutionist perspective. De Waal says this about aggression: “a behavior that is universal in the human species, and widespread in the animal kingdom, simply cannot be as detrimental as social science would have us believe. There must be advantages associated with it.” Aggression allows humans to develop morality, it tells us when it is acceptable to act a certain way; whether we should allow our emotions to take control or if we need to take a back seat.
Aggression has the ability to be seen in a positive light …show more content…
This is seen in the justice system that is run by the United States government. Through an evolutionist outlook aggression plays a key to the survival of humans based on the conditions humans are living in. As humans, we live in communities where you can guess the societal level a family is in based on where they live. In society today money plays a large role in aggression, if someone does not have much money to live on they are more likely to steal. When someone steals our system of justice fights back with the governments idea of retribution for aggression. What is meant by this is that, at least in the United States, there is a debate about whether a criminal should be punished in the way of an eye for an eye. This puts entropy at a standstill because those who go against the system are …show more content…
Aggression was our label for the sparks that flew when interests collided…” Aggression is used to assert dominance over another individual or the entire group which helps put society in a hierarchy. This happens with animals like wolves who have the alpha male. In order to become the alpha male, two males must engage in a brawl to see which is more powerful. In humans, there are fights that people get into to assert control. A newer example of this would be the movie Batman vs. Superman. Batman and Superman are similar to the wolves as they try to decide who would be better at leading the pack. In this film Batman believes Superman is a threat to humanity and Batman deems it his job to show Superman he will not allow this to happen. Sooner or later this will lead to the formation of the Justice League where the two heroes work together. The Justice league allows an alliance to be formed after aggression sized their powers. When there is a lack of dominance the species is less likely to obtain a mate. An evolutionist would argue that it is pointless to be this species because there is no reproduction occurring. With this interindividual idea, alliances are made because apes (and humans too) have a high sense of protection, whether of territory, members, or resources. Aggression allows species to defend themselves and those they care about. If