Are humans fundamentally selfish and aggressive?
A more accurate description might be that humans are fundamentally self-centered and self-preserving. That may sound negative, but it really isn t. Consider this: we would never even ask if dogs are fundamentally selfish. Mothers and pups aside, I ve never know a dog that willingly shared food with another dog–at least, until the first dog was full. We willingly acknowledge that dogs are concerned with their own welfare. The same can be said, in general, of chimpanzees. We EXPECT them to be selfish. These are our close relatives, so we should not be surprised that humans often show these same tendencies. A more optimistic way to phrase this question would be, why are most human willing, at least much of the time, to sacrifice personal gain and self-centered behavior for the good of society? We shouldn t be surprised to find humans behave selfishly. We should be surprised that many humans DON T.
