12.07.2015 Views

The Art of Happiness

The Art of Happiness

The Art of Happiness

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inclination to aggression is an original, selfsubsisting,instinctual disposition.” In the latterhalf <strong>of</strong> this century, two writers in particular,Robert Ardrey and Konrad Lorenz, looked atpatterns <strong>of</strong> animal behavior in certain predatorspecies and concluded that humans werebasically predators as well, with an innate orinstinctive drive to fight over territory.In recent years, however, the tide appears tobe turning on this pr<strong>of</strong>oundly pessimistic view <strong>of</strong>humanity, coming closer to the Dalai Lama’sview <strong>of</strong> our underlying nature as gentle andcompassionate. Over the past two or threedecades, there have been literally hundreds <strong>of</strong>scientific studies indicating that aggression is notessentially innate and that violent behavior isinfluenced by a variety <strong>of</strong> biological, social,situational, and environmental factors. Perhaps

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