The evolution of conflict, compassion and the social contract: A philosophical approach to human engagement

Abstract

Abstract What is the essence of human nature and the behaviors that define our own existence? Philosophers have argued and debated this topic for centuries, but little research currently examines the relationship between the development of early philosophical theories and literature describing human nature and potential with topics that are currently associated with evolutionary theory (i.e., natural selection, compassion, greed and conflict). Human behaviors are complex in that they can often display contradictory characteristics (i.e., prosocial and benign as well as antisocial and aggressive tendencies) to different groups of people under similar kinds of environmental conditions. This article will identify how classic philosophical theories address essential qualities of human existence such as truth, knowledge, humility and virtue and how these qualities influenced and guided belief systems among individuals and group behaviors. This article will also address how the views of more recent philosophers, political philosophers and Romanticist authors (i.e., Thomas Hobbes, Alexis de Tocqueville, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke and Mary Shelley) describe and rationalize human nature as biologically “brutish and savage” for essential purposes of survival that ultimately portrays human existence into chaos and conflict. In conclusion, the article will recognize the inherent contradiction and relationship between the evolved egoistic needs among individuals that are universal in human nature with the responsibilities and interpersonal needs of civic engagement and cooperation as a fundamental requirement of sustainable human existence within a democratic community.