Rutger Bregman just released a book on this topic called Humankind: A Hopeful History where he argues humans are good and dismisses some of the historical arguments that humans are bad with examples.
I second this book recommendation. I just finished reading it and it is well written and well argued. Bregman explicitly contrasts Hobbes’ pessimistic view of human nature with Rousseau’s positive view. According to the most recent evidence Rousseau was correct.
His evolutionary argument is that social learning was the overwhelming fitness inducing ability that drove human evolution. As a result we evolved for friendliness and cooperation as a byproduct of selection for social learning.
Rutger Bregman just released a book on this topic called Humankind: A Hopeful History where he argues humans are good and dismisses some of the historical arguments that humans are bad with examples.
I second this book recommendation. I just finished reading it and it is well written and well argued. Bregman explicitly contrasts Hobbes’ pessimistic view of human nature with Rousseau’s positive view. According to the most recent evidence Rousseau was correct.
His evolutionary argument is that social learning was the overwhelming fitness inducing ability that drove human evolution. As a result we evolved for friendliness and cooperation as a byproduct of selection for social learning.