The Harm Hypothesis – the origin of conflict.

Our planet is home to a significant amount of turmoil and our lives are plagued with the concerns of others harming us. Refrains from 'it is not safe to walk the streets at night' through to concerns of terrorism and national disputes that threaten, and sometimes even lead to, war play a negative role in our existence.

Essentially we are often faced with concerns that others may harm our existence. But why would another wish to harm our existence? Well here is my harm hypothesis:

Another living thing will only cause you (or any other living thing) harm for one of the following basic reasons:

1) The creature causing harm wants to eat you, or utilise you in order to reproduce.

2) The creature causing harm wants to take something from you.

3) The creature causing harm is afraid of you.

The purpose of breaking down the causes of harm to root causes is to try and develop a greater understanding of those may cause harm in order avoid the need to cause harm.

Now one possible criticism of the list is simply the suggestion that there are reasons that are not on the list so the list is incomplete and so does not correctly provide the understanding it is intended to provide.

As arguments for different root causes of harm are proposed I will attempt to address each one individually and examine whether every situation we can imagine can genuinely be attributed to one or more of these three principals. Additionally, and most importantly, I will examine if a possible understanding of a source of harm in terms of these basic principle appears instructive and can assist in preventing harm occurring.

Testing Harm the hypothesis.

The animal kingdom.

 Revenge