Revista Médica del Hospital General de México (Apr 2024)
Aggressiveness and violence – An issue
Abstract
Frequently, aggressiveness and violence are used as synonymous. However, these are two complex and different phenomena that scientists and philosophers have studied. In this paper, we make a difference between aggressiveness and violence. Aggressiveness must be considered utilitarian behavior that harms or destroys objects or subjects. Aggressiveness is a primitive way to conduct, and here, we discuss anatomic and functional encephalic systems. This involuntary and instinctive behavior is triggered when the animal is required to hunt a press, defend its territory when young, or compete for a mate for reproductive purposes. The aggressiveness will be violence when it pursues a social, political, economic, or criminal goal. A violent or aggressive act is not distinguished by the outcome but by intentionality. Indeed, a violent action could have the same material consequences as an aggressive act with a different goal. Aggression-violence is a biological phenomenon and the result of culture, societal life, political relations, and current moral conditions. We often tend to simplify the phenomena, and we have discussed aggressiveness-violence, but there are also other phenomena, such as empathy and mirror behavior. Empathy, compassion, and affection should be studied alongside the aggressive-violent process.
