Classical Social Theory In Pinker's Better Angels Of Our Nature
Classical Social Theory First Writing Assignment Pinker’s book Better Angels of Our Nature, describes how humans as a whole has become less violent throughout the centuries. He has found out that homicide rates in England had decreased from around 100 per 100,000 people to just 1 (Pinker, p.60), and the IQ of students have been increasing over the years (Singer). His theory of decreasing violence could be explained through British philosophers Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer, and also challenged by French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Hobbes claims that humans are violent power seekers which he calls “a war of every man against every man”, but fear a “violent death” (Hobbes Leviathan p.xix); which explains the high homicide rates in …show more content…
Similar to Smith’s division of labour, the process of differentiation (Spencer p.50) where individuals pursue a specific role in society, and the process of integration are heavily linked to societies becoming less violent. However, Spencer describes the ethics of differentiation as an evolutionary adaptation, rather than a social phenomenon, and describes the “non-adaptation of constitution to conditions” where “all evil” come from (Spencer, p 2).It is not difficult to expand on Pinker’s idea on decreasing levels of violence through Spencer’s teleology of evolution that evil will gradually disappear as humans adapt. For example, the evolution in society from militaristic to a more industrialised, altruistic society is a way to prove that not only the individuals, but the society itself would evolve into a less violent environment (Spencer, p.62-63). The tradition of French sociology, unlike the individualistic British tradition, is more holistic, based on the Postulate of Societal Realism (Levine Chapter8, p.153). In this case, rather than thinking that violence has decreased due to the individuals awareness, it is considered heavily on the collective consciousness of the morality which is set by the “sacred character” (Durkheim 11 in Bellah,
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