UBS_Center_Newsletter6

manitarian Revolution" during the European En-

lightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. World

War II was another watershed, as it seems to have

stopped states from waging war against each other.

Simultaneously, the so-called "Rights Revolution"

has witnessed an increasing focus on human and

civil rights, thereby greatly reducing violence against

ethnic minorities, women, children, homosexuals,

and animals.

Professor Pinker concluded his presentation by

looking at some behavioral explanations from the

perspective of an evolutionary psychologist. He

pointed out that aggression and violence are part of

human nature and that the most common motives

for violence are simple exploitation, the dominance

over other individuals or groups, but also utopian

ideologies, such as militant religious beliefs or ex-

treme nationalism. However, there are other forces

that can orient people away from violence – Pinker

calls them "our better angels" – including self-

control, empathy, moral sense, and reason. Rather

reassuringly, he concluded that over the course of

history, institutions and norms increasingly have

brought out our "better angels." This is also why

– if he would have to make a prediction – his best

guess would be that violence will not dramatically

increase again in the future.

an invasion with an alleged sphere of influence is

in her view alarming: "We should not sleep well at

night, as this logic can be applied to many nations."

When Mr. Karaganov stated at one point that he

did not always agree with President Putin, Ms.

Vike-Freiberga retorted ironically, "How dare

you!" While this exchange again exposed the differ-

ences between the two camps, it also showed that

some common ground remains, including a shared

history and culture.

Zurich Lecture of Economics in

Society: A History of Violence

Award-winning author Steven Pinker from Harvard

University closed off the forum with a tour de force

on the history of conflict and violence, presenting

an absolutely impressive amount of historical data

that historians, criminologists, economists, anthro-

pologists, and other researchers had been collecting

and producing over the past few decades. The main

message that this data conveys is that violence has

been in decline over millennia and that – completely

contrary to the picture we get in the media and in

public discourse –

He then revealed a dramatic decline in all sorts of

violence: war deaths; homicides; genocide; torture;

criminal justice; violence against children, homo-

sexuals, and animals; and hate crimes against racial

and ethnic minorities. He also showed that the

recent increase in violent deaths is nearly exclusively

due to the conflicts in the Middle East (especially

Syria) and that these increases are – while very

tragic – very small when compared to historical

levels of violence.

This dramatic overall downward trend in violence

was, however, neither linear nor uninterrupted, but

happened in distinct waves and historical process. A

first pacifying impact was due to the transition from

the anarchy of hunting, gathering, and horticultural

societies to the first agricultural civilizations with

cities and governments, which greatly decreased the

high rates of violent death that characterized life in

a state of nature. Another important factor was the

rise and expansion of nation states and the "Hu-

Dialogue and Events

Zurich Lecture of Economics in Society

Steven Pinker shows that violence has been in decline over

millennia

the present is probably the most

peaceful time in the history of the

human species.

Did you miss one of our events?

You can watch the videos of all our events on

YouTube anytime.