Cultural differences inform ideologies, attitudes, and of course, social norms and practices. However, many would argue that in spite of cultural differences, there exists within every human being an element that is endemic to the human species, a core that comprises the essence of human nature. This core, it is widely believed, is universal, and all that are human are vested with its unique properties. The size, scope, and nature of this coreùthe content of the human characterùis the subject of all philosophy, and the matter is far from settled. Whether or not human beings are innately violent or war prone is a fundamental question in the pursuit of human nature. If so, then a biological determinism has already steered us down a path of destruction and mayhem. If not, then warfare and killing must be regarded as peculiar habits specific toùor more prevalent inùsome cultures over others, and that perhaps it is not in our nature to be the violent creatures that human history so readily describes.
The fundamental question, then, concerns violence and what it may be attributed to. Are human beings a violent species, or are some cultures simply more violent than others are? The answer will not be easy to discern, as there is a paradox at play in the world of men and their wars. Killing, as Thomas Hobbes understood it, is natural for mankind; in fact, the state of nature is best described as a "war of every man against every man," in which there is no law and no justice (Hobbes, 1988 ed., pp. 66). However, in this state of nature, where security is the only virtue (and the means of procuring it the basis of all rational action), human beings must use their reason to anticipate the malevolent actions of their neighbors; humans always covet what they need to survive, and one man's hoard is another man's plunder. Under such precarious conditions, the most rational course for a man that aims to defend his security is to pre-...