Samuel reviewed On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz (A Harvest book, HB 291)
Review of 'On Aggression' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I've know about Lorenz since I was a little boy. I remember that when he died, in 1989, the portuguese TV reminded his name in a TV documentary of some episodes about the life of the man that could made little goslings walk beside him and everyone feel fascinated by those pictures.
I've heard about is ideas on human behaviour some years after that and I reminded curious about the observations he have made about them, some like: the intraspecific competition and the way the aggression first appeared on evolution as a way to set the places in which each member of a species has its own 'vital place' (or territory, as you prefer to call it). From that, he starts to develop his thesis, giving examples about animals (starting with the fish the coral reefs), never forgetting to retouch here and there the human species. Lorenz make some paragraphs …
I've know about Lorenz since I was a little boy. I remember that when he died, in 1989, the portuguese TV reminded his name in a TV documentary of some episodes about the life of the man that could made little goslings walk beside him and everyone feel fascinated by those pictures.
I've heard about is ideas on human behaviour some years after that and I reminded curious about the observations he have made about them, some like: the intraspecific competition and the way the aggression first appeared on evolution as a way to set the places in which each member of a species has its own 'vital place' (or territory, as you prefer to call it). From that, he starts to develop his thesis, giving examples about animals (starting with the fish the coral reefs), never forgetting to retouch here and there the human species. Lorenz make some paragraphs in the middle of its descriptions about animal behaviour examples just to compare the last example with some special case with the human race that looks very similar. I don't know if some examples he gives could be applied immediately to our species. I don't know.
You can read this book as a species of manifesto or a sermon . I don't forget the way he finishes the chapter four:
" As we shall hear later , this expedients often resorted to in nature to prevent the injurious effects of aggression . But the human being without insight has been known to kill his friend.
"
The title of the chapter six- "The Great Parliament of Instincts" is another slogan that I won't forget too. Of course the best of all chapters is the chapter eleven - "The bond" - where he describes goose life stories almost as they were human beings (which is very curious - because Lorenz sometimes says that the "anthropomorphizing reader" should took care in order to not interpret in a "human way" the examples done).
Some people will feel that only the three final chapters matter - the ones in which he describes the risks posed by the human race. He specially gives special attention into the "militant manifest". I heard about the potential connections between Lorenz and the Nazism that the could a initial supporter of this ideology, giving up later. Try to make your own conclusions knowing that and the condemnation of the so-called "millitant manifest". Strange, don't you think. Anyway, Lorenz never confirmed he supported Nazism in any period of his life. Just vilification !?
Anyway, I recommend the book for anyone that would like to know more about Lorenz work, the greylag goose life and just for the literary style, it deserves a read!
P.S.: just to know that I owned geese for some years ago (now I don't have anymore) and after I read this book I felt nostalgic and started to remember all of special episodes I had about that experience. I wish one day I would own geese again!