Perceptions de la guerre selon une perspective darwinienne

Abstract

Representations of war cannot be separated from moral perceptions of human conflicts. Whether war is deemed a normal phenomenon for human nature ‒ “wars have always existed and will always take place” ‒ or on the contrary is regarded as the unleashing of outrageous atrocities that could be avoided, has implications on how conflicts are remembered and commemorated. After the epoch-making publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), and the consequential flood of ill-advised books and articles which constructed what has been termed “social Darwinism”, war was perceived as the legitimate manifestation of “the survival of the fittest” both for nations and individuals. The reason for wars could be found in evolutionary biology (Crook, 1994). Yet other writers chose to read peace into Darwin’s writings, and pointed to the notions of solidarity and philanthropy present in such publications as Descent of Man (1871). Reassessing Darwinism on the basis of the “reversionary effect of evolution” (Tort, 1983) leads to delegitimizing war time violence through the deconstruction of socio-biological arguments and gives a case for such anti-warmongering war memorials as Gentioux-Pigerolles in France which reads ‘Cursed be War!’