With vast knowledge acquired primarily from his own animal studies, Lorenz first describes animal instinctive behaviour, then extends his conclusions to include human beings: "Unreasoning and unreasonable human nature causes two nations to compete, though no economic necessity compels them to do so; it induces two political parties or religions with amazingly similar programmes of salvation to fight each other bitterly and it impels an Alexander or a Napoleon to sacrifice millions of lives in his attempt to unit the world under his sceptre. ... All these amazing paradoxes, however, find an unconstrained explanation, falling into place like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, if one assumes that human behaviour, and particularly human social behaviour, far from being determined by reason and cultural tradition alone, is still subject to all the laws prevailing in all phylogenetically adapted instinctive behaviour."
CONTENTS:
I. Prologue in the Sea
II. Coral Fish in the Laboratory
III. What Aggression is good for
IV. The Spontaneity of Aggression
V. Habit, Ritual and Magic
VI. The Great Parliament of Instincts
VII. Behavioural Analogies to Morality
VIII. Anonymity of the Flock
IX. Social Organization without Love
X. Rats
XI. The Bond
XII. On the Virtue of Scientific Humility
XIII. Ecce Homo!
XIV. Avowal of Optimism

Neglects external and learned explanations of aggression. and so argues for innate genetic models alone. Assumes that animal studies can explain human social behaviour. Not even clear if instincts are a valid concept as linked to idea of nerves as being for energy flow rather then information flow. But say like the classical 19th century thinkers it usful to help start a discussion ( )