Abstract: | Comments on an article by E. J. McGuigan (see record 1959-08088-001). According to the commentator, this article carries a number of confusing assumptions which make it very difficult for the respondents to talk to the question. The article is essentially a letter raising questions and requesting information about encouraging nonphysical sciences (social and biological) to solve problems of "our very survival." To the commentator, the author's logic seems to be than an organism's "aggressive tendencies" are at the root of fighting among individuals; that fighting among nations-the phenomena of war-is another example or extension of fighting among individuals; therefore, to learn how to stop wars among nations, we need a research program to study the individual's aggressive tendencies and ways of controlling them. The commentator states that the assumption of an equation between fighting among persons and international warfare seems to ignore the extensive transformations of individual drives and instincts in the socialization of the individual, and the fabric of society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |