Abstract
Having examined concepts relating to the causes of human warfare advanced by scientists of different disciplines — Monod, Scott, Alland, Montagu, Ardrey, Morris, Lorenz — we have proposed a different explanation, in neurophysiological terms. According to our thesis, the adoption of an upright stance by Australopithecine hominids favored both freeing of the forelimbs and a change in emphasis from osmic to visual sensory input to the brain. Selection pressures, defined as operating at four different levels on a biosystem, then led to appearance of a higher level logic in the brain, beyond that of counting and recognizing two basic geometric fields, the first the world of “self” and the second a world of “other objects”. The new logic was an abstracting field logic involving the triangular relation of self, other, and a third entity, the idea of tool as intermediate. The capacity for abstraction inherent in the concept of “tool” raises the internal “communication temperature” of the brain, thus, favoring the genesis of both higher level abstract thought and a neural coordination center, finally realized formally as centers for speech. The high-speed, parallel-processing, visually-oriented brain that resulted was still connected to the older brain elements originally devoted largely to processing autonomic system data, food, emotive response, sex, and smell. The highly interconnected new brain (neocortex) and older brain (limbic system) constituted a communication system that was unstable at high communication “temperatures”. The unstable neuroelectric fields generated new modes of behavior and still higher levels of abstract thought. One of the new modes of behavior to emerge was human group warfare.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alland, A. (1972) The Human Imperative, Columbia Univ. Press, New York.
Bloch, E., Cardon, S., Iberall, A., Jacobowitz, D. Kornacker, K., Lipetz, L., McCulloch, W., Urquhart, J., Weinberg, M., and Yates, F., Introduction to a Biological Systems Science, NASA Contractor Report, CR-1720, February, 1971.
Fried, M., Harris, M., andMurphy, R. (eds.) (1968) War: The Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression, Natural History Press, New York.
Iberall, A. (1972) Toward a General Science of Viable Systems, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Klein, R. (1969) Mousterian cultures in European Russia,Science 165, 257.
Leopold, A., andArdrey, R. (1972) Toxic substances in plants and the food habits of early man,Science 176, 512.
Lieberman, P., Crelin, E., andKlatt, D. (1972) Phonetic ability and related anatomy of the newborn and adult human, Neanderthal man, and the chimpanzee,Amer. Anthropologist 74, 287.
Lorenz, K. (1966) On Aggression, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York.
MacLean, P. (1970) The triune brain, emotion, and scientific bias,in The Neurosciences: Second Study Program (F. Schmitt, ed.), Rockefeller Univ. Press, New York.
Carthy, J. D., andEbling, F., (eds.) (1964) The Natural History of Aggression, Academic Press, New York.
Mellaart, J. (1965) Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Monod, J. (1971) Chance and Necessity, Knopf, New York.
Montagu, A. (1968) Man and Aggression, Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
Montagu, A. (1969) Man: His First Two Million Years, Columbia Univ, Press, New York.
Oakley, K. (1961) Man the Tool-Maker, U. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Richardson, L., (1948) War moods,Psychometrika,13, 197.
Scott, J. (1962) Introduction to animal behavior,in The Behavior of Domestic Animals E. Havez, ed., Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia, PA.
Scott, J. (1969) Biological basis of human warfare: An interdisciplinary problem,in Interdisciplinary Relationships in the Social Sciences (M. Sherif and C. Sherif, eds.), Aldine, Chicago, IL.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Iberall, A.S. A proposed neurophysiological basis for war. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 1, 446–454 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367268
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367268