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Aeon Psyche || Do humans really have a killer instinct or is that just manly fancy?1952 illustration of Australopithecus africanus by Zdenek Burian.Photo by STR/AFP via Getty.Horrified by the atrocities of the 20th century, an array of scientists sought to explain why human beings turned to violence. The founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud argued that 『man is a wolf to man』, driven to hatred, destruction and death. The neuroscientist Paul MacLean maintained that humans』 violent tendencies could be traced to their primitive 『reptilian brain』. The social psychologist Albert Bandura countered that aggression was not inborn but resulted from imitation and suggestion. Despite the controversy they provoked, such theories often attained the status of conventional wisdom.由於對20世紀人類曾經的暴行感到恐懼，一批科學家試圖解釋為什麼人類（往往）會訴諸暴力。精神分析的創始人西格蒙德·弗洛伊德（Sigmund Freud）認為，「一個人對另一個人來說像一匹狼一樣」，被驅使著走向仇恨、毀滅和死亡。神經學家保羅·麥克林（Paul MacLean）則堅信，人類的暴力傾向可以追溯到他們原始的「爬行動物的大腦」。社會心理學家阿爾伯特·班杜拉（Albert Bandura）反駁說，攻擊性不是天生的，而是（後天）模仿和暗示的結果。儘管這些理論引發了爭議，但它們往往是廣為傳播的世俗認知。What makes claims about human nature become truisms? How do they gain credibility? They might rely on experiments, case studies or observation, but evidence alone is never enough to persuade. Such theories – by virtue of the very fact that they seek to encompass the human – must always go beyond their evidence. They manage to persuade by appealing to common experience and explaining familiar events, by creating a shock of recognition in their audiences, a sudden realisation that 『this must be true』. They employ characters and a narrative arc, and draw moral lessons. In short: they tell a good story.是什麼讓關於人性的論斷成為真理的？他們是如何獲得可信度的？可能依賴於實驗、案例研究或觀察，但僅憑（這些）證據是不足以有說服力的。這些理論——由於它們試圖涵蓋人類——必須比其證據更有說服力。他們通過訴諸於共同的經驗，解釋大眾熟悉的事件，通過在他們的觀眾中創造一個震驚的認識，讓他們突然意識到「這一定是真的」。他們運用人物和敘事弧線，並從中汲取道德教訓。簡而言之：他們講了一個好故事。In the 1960s, alongside prevailing psychological and neuroscientific theories of human aggression, a new claim appeared, that aggression was a human instinct. Relying on the sciences of evolution and animal behaviour, this 『instinct theory』 held that human aggression was a legacy of our deep ancestral past and an inbuilt tendency shared with many other animal species. One important novelty of this theory was its assertion that human aggression was not wholly destructive, but had a positive, even constructive side. Its proponents were talented writers who readily adopted literary devices.20世紀60年代，隨著有關人類攻擊性的心理學和神經科學理論的盛行，一種新的主張出現了，即攻擊性是人類的本能。這種「本能理論」基於進化科學和動物行為，認為人類的攻擊性是我們的祖先留下的悠久遺產，是一種與許多其他動物物種共同具有的內在傾向。這一理論的一個重要新穎之處在於，它斷言人類的侵略行為並非完全具有破壞性，而是具有積極的、甚至是建設性的一面。它的支持者是才華橫溢的作家，他們輕而易舉地採用文學手段（為其辯護）。Robert Ardrey’s bestseller African Genesis (1961) won a big American audience. A Hollywood scriptwriter turned science writer, Ardrey travelled to South Africa, then a hotspot for the excavation of prehistoric human remains. In Johannesburg, he met Raymond Dart, the discoverer of a 2 million-year-old fossilised skull, which Dart believed to be the most ancient human ancestor ever unearthed. Although this creature walked upright, its braincase was small and distinctly apelike, so Dart named it Australopithecus africanus, the southern ape from Africa.羅伯特·阿德瑞（Robert Ardrey）的暢銷書《非洲起源》（1961）在美國贏得了大批觀眾。阿德瑞從好萊塢編劇變成了科學作家，她去過南非，當時那裡是發掘史前人類遺骸的熱門地點。在約翰尼斯堡，他遇到了雷蒙德·達特（Raymond Dart），他發現了一個200萬年前的頭骨化石，達特認為這是迄今出土的最古老的人類祖先。儘管這種生物是直立行走的，但它的腦殼很小，而且明顯像類人猿，因此達特將它命名為非洲南方古猿，即來自非洲南部的類人猿。Dart found that Australopithecus remains were typically surrounded by equally fossilised animal bones, especially the long heavy leg bones of antelopes evidently hunted for food. But these bones had been shaped and carefully carved. He noticed that they rested comfortably in his own hand. With a shock, he realised that they were weapons. Their double-knobbed ends corresponded perfectly to the holes and dents that Dart observed in other fossilised Australopithecus skulls. Two conclusions seemed inescapable: first, this proto-human ancestor was not simply a hunter; he was also a killer of his own kind. Second, the wielding of bone weapons was not solely a destructive act; rather, it had far-reaching consequences for human evolution. Freed from their role in locomotion, forelimbs became available for finer manipulations, which then drove the enlargement of the human brain. Picking up a weapon, Dart theorised, was the thing that triggered human advancement.達特發現，非洲南方古猿的遺骸通常被同樣已成化石的動物骨骼包圍著，尤其是羚羊又長又重的腿骨，它們顯然是獵物。但這些骨頭是經過精心雕琢的。他注意到它們舒舒服服地放在古猿的手裡。他大吃一驚，意識到那是武器。它們雙把手的末端與達特在其他非洲南方古猿頭骨化石上觀察到的洞和凹痕完全吻合。兩個結論似乎是不可避免的：首先，這個原始人類祖先不僅僅是一個獵人；他也是同類殺手。第二，使用骨狀武器不僅僅是一種破壞性行為；相反，它對人類進化產生了深遠的影響。前肢從運動中解放，可以進行更精細的操作，這推動了人類大腦的進化。從理論上講，拿起武器是觸發人類進步的事物。In Ardrey’s retelling, Dart’s hypothesis became even more dramatic. The ancient African savannah was home also to Australopithecus robustus, a vegetarian, unarmed cousin of africanus – and his victim. In Ardrey’s account, the lithe and ruthless africanus, brandishing bone weapons, had exterminated his competitor, an ancient conflict that Ardrey couldn’t resist comparing to the Biblical murder of Abel by his brother Cain. The weapon had propelled africanus toward full humanity while robustus slouched toward extinction. Human beings were, quite literally, Cain’s children.在阿德瑞的複述中，達特的假設變得更有戲劇性了。古老的非洲大草原也是粗壯型南猿的家園，粗壯型南猿是非洲南方古猿手無寸鐵的素食表親，也是它的獵物。據阿德瑞描述，這個柔韌而無情的非洲南方古猿，用骨頭做的武器，把它的競爭對手消滅了。這個古老的衝突，阿德瑞情不自禁地把它跟聖經中該隱（Cain）對他的兄弟亞伯（Abel）的謀殺相比。武器驅使非洲南方古猿成為了真正的人類，而粗壯型南猿則佝僂著走向滅絕。人類，毫不誇張地說，就是該隱的孩子。Thanks to Ardrey’s embroidered telling, Dart’s theory inspired perhaps the most famous scene in cinematic history. In the opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the leader of a band of ape-men smashes the remains of his defeated antagonists with a crude weapon fashioned out of bone. The victors are carnivorous and armed; the losers, gentle and defenceless. At the end of the sequence, the leader tosses his bone weapon into the air, where it is transformed into a spaceship gliding silently through darkness. Arthur C Clarke, the scriptwriter for Stanley Kubrick’s film, had read Ardrey’s book, and the scene echoed Dart’s claim: human ingenuity begins in violence.多虧了阿德瑞的栩栩如生的講述，達特的理論激發了也許是電影史上最著名的場景。在《2001：太空漫遊》（1968）的開場片段中，一群猿人的首領用一件骨頭製成的粗糙武器砸碎了被打敗的敵人的遺骸。勝利者是肉食性的武裝動物；失敗者，溫吞且無力。在這一段的最後，首領把他的骨制武器拋向空中，它變成了一艘在黑暗中靜靜滑翔的飛船。斯坦利·庫布裡克（Stanley Kubrick）這部電影的編劇阿瑟·C·克拉克（Arthur C Clarke）讀過阿德瑞的書，這個場景與達特的說法相呼應：人類的聰明才智始於暴力。Ardrey was disturbed by the image he had conjured. What could be more frightening than man the irascible ape, with a penchant for violence inherited from his ancestors in his heart and, in his hand, weapons much more powerful than antelope bones? What would prevent this evolved australopithecine from detonating an atomic bomb?阿德雷被他想像出來的景象嚇了一跳。還有什麼能比人更可怕的呢？這是一種性情暴躁的猿猴，它的心裡繼承了祖先對暴力的嗜好，而手中的武器卻比羚羊的骨頭更有力。還有什麼能阻止進化後的南方古猿引爆原子彈？In African Genesis, Ardrey turned to a different branch of science – ethology, the study of animal behaviour in the wild – for an answer. The Austrian ornithologist Konrad Lorenz developed the foundations of ethology by sharing his home with wild animals, mainly birds of many different species. By living with animals, Lorenz revealed some of the mysteries of animal instinct, including the phenomenon of imprinting, in which a baby bird follows the first parent-figure it sees after birth. In popular books in the 1950s, Lorenz enraptured war-weary audiences worldwide with tales of his life with jackdaws, geese and fish, presenting himself as a scientific King Solomon, the Biblical hero whose magic ring granted him the power to talk with the animals.在《非洲起源》一書中，阿德瑞開始研究一個不同的科學分支——動物行為學，研究野生動物的行為——來尋找答案。奧地利鳥類學家康拉德·洛倫茨（Konrad Lorenz）通過與野生動物（主要是許多不同種類的鳥）共享自己的居所，發展了動物行為學的基礎。通過與動物生活在一起，洛倫茨揭示了動物本能的一些奧秘，包括印記現象，即幼鳥在出生後跟隨它所看到的第一個父母形象。在20世紀50年代的流行書籍中，洛倫茨講述了他與寒鴉、鵝和魚的生活故事，讓全世界厭戰的觀眾欣喜若狂。他把自己描繪成聖經中的所羅門王，一個擁有魔法戒指的英雄，擁有與動物交談的能力。By the 1960s, Lorenz had begun to notice a curious feature of the aggression that his animals directed at members of their own species. Unlike predator-prey relationships, these intraspecies encounters rarely ended in killing. Instead, the aggressor animals diverted their violent impulses into harmless or even productive channels. Two rival greylag ganders, spoiling for a fight, cackled and threatened each other, but never physically clashed. Their aggression thus discharged in these playacting rituals, each gander returned to his mate in triumph. Lorenz observed that not only was outright violence avoided, but the social bond between each gander and his own family was actually strengthened. Far from a drive purely toward destruction and death, aggression redirected against an outsider engendered the ties of affection and love among the in-group.到了20世紀60年代，洛倫茨開始注意到他飼養的動物對同類成員的攻擊性的一個奇怪特徵。不同於捕食者與被捕食者的關係，這種種內的接觸很少以殺戮告終。相反，好鬥的動物把他們的暴力衝動以無害的、甚至是有益的方式釋放出來。兩隻互為對手的灰背公鵝渴望一場戰鬥，它們咯咯地叫著互相威脅，但從來沒有發生肢體衝突。它們的攻擊性在這些表演儀式中得到了釋放，每隻雄鵝都凱旋而歸。洛倫茨觀察到，這不僅避免了直接的暴力，而且每隻雄鵝和它自己家庭之間的社會聯繫實際上也得到了加強。與純粹的毀滅和死亡的驅動不同，針對外來者的攻擊在內部群體中產生了情感和愛的聯繫。Lorenz’s ethology showed that aggression, when properly managed, had positive consequences. Ardrey realised that the answer to the problem of human aggression was not to try to eliminate it – an impossible task, since Dart had demonstrated that it was ingrained in our nature – but to acknowledge aggression as innate and ineradicable, and then channel it productively. In his book On Aggression (1966), Lorenz made his own suggestions for possible outlets, including the space race.洛倫茨的動物行為學表明，如果管理得當，攻擊性會產生積極的後果。阿德瑞發現解決人類攻擊性這個問題的答案不是試著去消除它——這是一個不可能的任務，因為達特已經證明了它在我們的本性中根深蒂固——而是要認識到攻擊性是天生的、不可消滅的，然後有效地引導它。在他的《攻擊與人性》（1966）一書中，洛倫茨對可取的解決方式提出了自己的建議，包括太空競賽。It would be difficult to overstate the popularity in the 1960s and 』70s of Lorenz’s and Ardrey’s hypothesis about human nature. In the United States, their books became bestsellers. Through their theories about human nature, readers made sense of race riots and assassinations, the Vietnam War and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Their warning – that humans must accommodate their aggression instinct and re-channel it, before it was too late – was cited by US senators and cabinet secretaries. The message made such a lasting impact that even in the 1980s, UNESCO found it necessary to endorse an official statement that biology didn’t condemn humans to violence.洛倫茨和阿德瑞關於人性的假設在20世紀60年代和70年代很流行，怎麼誇大都不過分。在美國，他們的書成了暢銷書。通過他們關於人性的理論，讀者理解了種族騷亂、暗殺、越南戰爭和核毀滅的威脅。他們警告說，人類必須適應自己的侵略本能，並重新引導它，以免為時過晚。美國參議員和內閣部長們援引了這一警告。這個信息產生了如此持久的影響，甚至在20世紀80年代，聯合國教科文組織發現有必要認可一項官方聲明，即生物學並不譴責人類的暴力。How did the killer-instinct idea achieve such cultural power? Because it came embedded in story. Like the greatest fictional works, Lorenz’s and Ardrey’s books drew on an ancient motif: that man’s fatal flaw was also his greatest strength, deprived of which he would cease to be human. Their deft use of character, plot and scene-setting, their invocation of myth, their summing up in a moral that readers could apply to themselves, drove the theories of Lorenz and Ardrey to conventional wisdom status.殺戮本能的想法是如何獲得如此強大的文化力量的呢？因為它根植於故事之中。就像最偉大的虛構作品一樣，洛倫茨和阿德雷的書也採用了一個古老的主題：人的致命弱點同時也是他最大的力量，失去了這種力量，他就不再是人類了。他們對人物、情節和場景設置的巧妙運用，對神話的援引，對寓意的總結，讓讀者可以運用到自己身上，這使得洛倫茨和阿德雷的理論成為了廣為傳播的世俗認知。The sciences on which they built their theories might have been superseded. But today’s sciences of human nature – sociobiology and evolutionary psychology – have adopted the claim for an evolved predisposition for aggression. The 1960s bestsellers ushered in a genre of popular science that still depends on speculative reconstructions of human prehistory. It also still draws comparisons between the behaviour and emotions of humans and animals. The grudging compliment we pay a powerful man – 『he’s an alpha male』 – is one hint of the genre. But we ought to be careful about what we believe. Theories of human nature have important consequences – what we think we are shapes how we act. We believe in such theories not because they are true, but because we are persuaded that they are true. The history of the claim for a killer instinct in humans encourages us to think of the ways in which scientists argue and try to persuade. Storytelling, in this view, is a crucial element of both the science and its public presentation.他們建立理論所依據的科學可能已經被取代了。但是當今的有關人性的科學——社會生物學和進化心理學——已經接受了進化後的攻擊性傾向的說法。20世紀60年代的暢銷書開創了一種大眾科學，這種科學仍然依賴於對人類史前的推測性重建。它還將人類和動物的行為和情感進行了比較。我們勉強稱讚一個有權勢的男人——「他是個阿爾法男（Alpha male）」——就是這種類型的暗示之一。但是我們應該對我們所相信的東西保持謹慎。人性理論有著重要的影響——我們認為自己是什麼塑造了我們的行為。我們相信這些理論的原因並不在於因為它們是真實的，而是因為我們相信它們是真實的。聲稱人類具有殺戮本能的歷史促使我們思考科學家辯論和說服的方式。在這種觀點下，講故事是科學及其公開展示的一個重要元素。In social animals, the alpha is the individual in the community with the highest rank. Male or female individuals or both can be alphas, depending on their species. Other animals in the same social group may exhibit deference or other symbolic signs of respect particular to their species towards the alpha or alphas. (Wikipedia)在社會動物中，阿爾法是群體中地位最高的個體。雄性個體或雌性個體或兩者都可以是阿爾法，這取決於它們的物種。在同一社會群體中的其他動物可能會表現出對阿爾法或阿爾法們的尊重或其他特定於他們物種的象徵符號。