Peace

Anatol Rapoport

In Peace: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, noted mathematician and peace researcher Anatol Rapoport explores the evolution of the idea of peace and explains why it is displacing war as a viable institution. Professor Rapoport ventures into uncharted philosophical territory by drawing on both the natural and the social sciences to trace the development of the ideas of war and peace. He argues that the theory of evolution and processes analogous to natural selection can explain not only biological events, but also the development of the institution of war. Thus the clashes of armed hordes at the dawn of history were the "ancestors" of our present battles using automated weapons, while Isaiah's prophecy of total disarmament--"And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares"--Anticipates the resolutions of the United Nations. Rapoport explains that although the institution of war enjoys a...

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