Interesting - we are definitely wired for survival, but at the same time we are wired for empathy and fairness, able to take another's perspective. Research has tended to indicate that we are most able to display altruism toward those in our own in-group (ethnocentrism).
This week's All in the Mind podcast looks at some of these issues.
The Kill Factor (broadcast edition) and Brave New Mind (podcast/Radio Australia edition)
Natural born killer? If humans are born for survival, how hard is it to train us to kill for war, and what's the psychological impact of ending another person's life?
The BBC's Stephen Evans meets soldiers and hears their stories of war, killing, and survival.
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Guests
Andy Wilson
Served in the British Special Forces (SAS)
Lt Col Peter G. Kilner
Army officer
Philosopher and educator
West Point Academy, NY, USA
http://soldier-ethicist.blogspot.com/
Ben Close
Served in 1st Battalion Coldstream Guard's Regiment
Associate Professor David Livingston Smith
Department of Philosophy
University of New England, USA
http://newengland.academia.edu/DavidLivingstoneSmith
Reverend Dr Giles FraserCanon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral
Lecturer in Ethics and Morality
Academy of the British Ministry of Defence
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/People-at-the-Cathedral/Dean-Chapter
Major Sam Plant
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
United Kingdom
Major General Patrick Cordingley
Commander of the British 7th Armoured Brigade (The Desert Rats)
First Gulf War
http://patrickcordingley.com/
Joanna Bourke
Professor of History
School of History, Classics, and Archaeology
Birbeck College, UK
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/jb/index.html
Stephen Evans
BBC presenter and correspondent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_3890000/newsid_3892600/3892645.stm
Further Information
Transcript and audio of podcast and Radio Australia edition of All in the Mind this week - Brave New Mind: Smart Drugs and the ethics of Neuroenhancement
BBC World Service webpage for this series, The Kill Factor
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Andy Wilson's story in more detail on the Talking2Minds website
Ben Close on the Talking2Minds website
UK charity established by a former soldier with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for others with PTSD
Publications
Title: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Author: Lt.Col. Dave Grossman
Publisher: Back Bay Books, 1996
Title: An Intimate History of Killing
Author: Joanna Bourke
Title: Killology - lecture by Lt. Col. David Grossman, broadcast on Background Briefing, 1999
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/1999/23921.htm
Presenter
Natasha Mitchell/Stephen Evans
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