[lit-ideas] Homo Homini Lupus
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 18:10:07 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 5/28/2014 12:40:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes in "Falling on the grenade and other
morals":
And here, by using the word “ought” we are entering into Nicholas Wade
territory. We know more about the Chimpanzee than we once did. It is now
known
that in the wild they engage in almost constant warfare with neighboring
tribes. One tribe will try to kill of the males of an enemy tribe, one by
one, and eventually take over its females. The Chimpanzee and the line that
became homo sapiens split about 5 million years ago. Wade infers that man’
s ancestors behaved just as the chimpanzee does today, but when man entered
into hunter-gatherer societies, the old ways didn’t work. These societies
no longer needed an alpha male. They needed to become egalitarian; so,
according to Wade, Natural Selection developed “morals” in the
Hunter-Gatherer society so that tribe members would behave as they “ought.”
Wade lists
what he believes were the critical “oughts,” and tribe members who didn’t
abide by them, when found out, would be ostracized. Being kicked out of a
tribe in those days was tantamount to a death sentence; so it was in their
interest to conform.
---
We are also entering into R. M. Hare's territory, and most moral
philosophers, especially of the type I favour: Oxonian and analytic!
We've seen that Wade blatantly (is this correct here?) ignores Locke, as he
should. Wade is Eton and Cambridge (King's) and as he says in an interview
online, he mainly studied science at Cantab. while not 'aiming at' being a
scientist at all! It's no wonder he does not care for or quote traditional
English philosophers who are rather revered in Oxford, rather!
But the passage above reminded me of Locke's predecessor: Hobbes, and the
famous dictum as used in De Cive.
Homo homini lupus seems to implicate:
"man is a wolf to [his fellow] man."
The adage was first attested in Plauto's Asinaria (195 BC) -- the Romans
love a wolf -- as:
"lupus est homo homini"
The phrase is sometimes translated as
"man is man's wolf", which carries a different implicature and can now be
interpreted to mean that man preys upon man.
It is widely referenced (by humans, rather than wolves) when discussing
the horrors of which humans (and wolves) are capable.
As a counterpoint, Seneca the Younger wrote that "man is something sacred
for man" ("Homo, sacra res homini), but Livy thinks that "he was, perhaps,
joking."
Thomas Hobbes, year later, and after a (perhaps Oxonian) education, drew
upon both aphorisms in the dedication of his De Cive (1651):
"To speak impartially, both sayings are very true;
That Man to Man is a kind of God; and
that Man to Man is an errant Wolfe.
The first is true, if we compare Citizens
amongst themselves; and the second, if we compare
Cities."
Hobbes's observation in turn echoes a line from Plauto claiming that man is
inherently selfish, and _contra_ Wade who thinks that while chimps are
selfish, man (as in "Badge of Courage") is selfless, or unselfish ("Unto
others").
The adage can also be taken further:
"Man is a wolf to Man, which, you will agree, is not very kind to the
wolf."
(Serge Bouchard, Quinze lieux communs, Les armes, Boréal editions, p. 177
-- this seems to echo Marais -- but cfr. "My Frends the Wolves").
Erasmus discusses Plautus' use of the phrase in Adagia (1500). This was
possibly due to Erasmus's wife suggesting so.
The adage is used ironically in Voltaire's Candide (1759) to argue against
the philosophy of optimism.
The adage is the founding assumption of Sigmund Freud's confused
"Civilization and Its Discontents" (1929) -- the year when "Mister Cinders"
opened
in London.
It iscCited on p. 211 of the third volume of Klaas Schilder's Christus in
Zijn lijden trilogy.
It is also quoted in Marianne Moore's World War II poem "In Distrust of
Merits".
In chapter 13 of Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak, the narrator
remarks, of the scenes and events witnessed by Zhivago as he evades partisans
late in Russia's post-revolutionary civil war:
"Those days justified the ancient saying that 'man is a wolf to man'."
The adage is quoted in Eine Frau in Berlin (1959), an anonymously published
autobiography posthumously attributed to Marta Hillers.
In Marco Bellocchio's directorial debut Fists in the Pocket (1965), a man
chats with a girl in a nightclub and tries to explain this phrase to her. He
fails, fortunately.
In Patrick O'Brian's The Wine-Dark Sea (1993), parson Nathaniel Martin uses
the phrase to comment on his shipmates who have become cheerfully
avaricious in anticipation of more treasure from enemy ships.
The adage is the title of a 1999 album by the Roman band La Locanda delle
Fate, but as I say, Romans love a wolf.
Man Is Wolf to Man (1999), a memoir by Janusz Bardach -- "as if written by
a wolf".
It is the motto of a family of werewolves in Terry Pratchett's The Fifth
Elephant (1999).
it is also the tiitle of Episode 14 of Season 1 of Law & Order: Criminal
Intent.
And it is also the title of a (unsurprisingly) Roman short movie directed
by Matteo Rovere in 2006.
The motto is seen on a wall of the Main Cell Block of the Penitentary in
the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), if you're into that sort of
thing.
In part 6, chapter I of Wolf Hall (2009) by Hilary Mantel, Thomas Cromwell
recalls the phrase whilst reflecting on the Duke of Norfolk's hounding of
Cardinal Wolsey. The reference being pretty arcane.
The character Hot Coldman has the phrase tattooed on the back of his head
in the game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010).
The phrase is the title of an achievement in the Faction Pack DLC for
Metro: Last Light (2013)
It is best to analyse 'homo homini lupus' as a premise in Hobbes's moral
theory, as is done in
http://www.uri.edu/personal/szunjic/philos/leviathan.htm
and appended below.
Cheers,
Speranza
For Hobbes, the equality of rights arises from the equality of abilities,
not the other way round: equal opportunities from the basic equality of
rights.
Premise (Anthropological realism)
Humans are egoists who are relentlessly after their own goals. They
aggressively pursue their ends.
Saying: 'Man is a wolf to man.' (Homo homini lupus est.)
Premise:
Human individuals desire the same goods, which they cannot all enjoy as
they are limited in number. Total gratification of desires is not possible
because of the chronic scarcity of resources.
Limited resources (a very modern idea) coupled with our selfish nature
result in merciless competition. This generates a universal concern (anxiety)
for subsistence.
Assumptions
1. Selfish Nature.
2. Aggressive Instincts.
3. Limited Resources.
Consequence:
This situation creates mutual enmity (animosity). People view others as a
threat or an obstacle in achieving their goals. The result is constant
diffidence (= mistrust).
Response: The ultimate stage in this development is that people endeavor
to destroy or subdue each other.
Equality of Aspiration
Mutual Animosity
Aggression and Destruction
Expansion and Augmentation
Men attack others for the sake of one of the three goals (or all of them):
(a) conservation (self-preservation),
(b) expansion (conquest),
(c) delectation (joy of conflict).
Strategies:
What to do to safeguard one's possessions and secure safety? It seems that
acting from anticipation and increasing the readiness are the most
reasonable strategies. Therefore it should be allowed to everyone to act
preemptively (from anticipation of threats) and to constantly increase power
(arms-race) as both are the ways to secure conservation.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
