Law and Politics as Play
Liberal theory fails to cope effectively with the common human tendency, and particularly in circumstances that humans perceive as zero sum games, to brutalize other humans. Liberal theory does not adequately accommodate the reality that humans contest concepts of rights, justice, and truth. The necessarily contextual, contested, and contingent character of substantive liberal principles necessarily prevents them, qua principles, from effectively inhibiting human brutality. Liberal theory also does not take adequate account of the passionate and non-rational character of the human animal. Giambattista Vico’s remarkably prescient and comprehensive eighteenth century vision of the human condition anticipates these two barriers to achieving liberalism’s pacific political and social vision. Vico suggests that the visceral experiences of competitive human play can, and in fact do, displace the political and social conditions and practices that commonly trigger brutal human behavior. Thus framed, the liberal tradition moves humans from righteousness to playfulness. * Professor, The Colorado College. The author earnestly thanks the Rockefeller Foundation and the staff of the Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy, the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Benezet Foundation at The Colorado College for their research support. Professors Susan Silbey, Thomas Pysczcynski, Robert Lee, the late Richard Rorty, and Jonathan Lee also made particularly important specific contributions to this analysis. Readers will see for themselves how greatly Professor Donald Verene’s writings on Vico contributed to it. Chicago-Kent Law Review Executive Articles Editor Hunter Hogan significantly improved this final product by insisting on substantive and expository precision without sacrificing his much-appreciated enthusiasm for the project itself. Only those who know Marilyn Vickers, a clinical psychologist, will appreciate the full extent of my wife’s immensely important contributions to all aspects of this project. 1334 CHICAGO-KENT LAW REVIEW [Vol 83:3 INTRODUCTION AND NORMATIVE FRAME [Caesar:] And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand. —George Bernard Shaw1 [T]he greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion,—all in one.
Evolutionary Ethics, Aggression, and Violence: Lessons from Primate Research
his paper is unusual for this journal because most readers do not deal professionally with animals. T Information from primatology, however, is relevant to consideration of violence between people. I will focus mainly on aggression and peacemaking among nonhuman primates, but will address related topics as well. I do not use the term “aggression” to refer only to violent behavior, but to any overt conflict between individuals. Although I am a professor of psychology, I am a biologist by training. When I was a student many years ago, the major scholarly work on this topic was Konrad Lorenz’s On Aggression.’ It set into motion contemporary research on aggression from a biological perspective by making the controversial claim that aggression is an instinct not only in animals, but also in human beings. My own research and that of others suggests a slightly different view, namely, that aggression between individuals is a last resort when conflict resolution fails. Lorent’s understanding of aggression as a drive-aggression accumulates within us and eventually must come out-is no longer a dominant view; rather, aggression is now generally taken to be an option rather than a drive.
The politics of affect and emotion in contemporary Latin American cinema : Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico
Between Neo-realist Sentimentality and Modernist Shock: New Latin American Cinema and Beyond Thrilling Histories: Questions of Genre and History Affecting Legacies: Contemporary Structures of Feeling Alien/Nation: Contemporary Youth in Film Emotional Investments: Global Networks and Transnational Affective Communities