PART II
THE HUMAN NATURE AND MORALS OF THE
CASE
CHAPTER I
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CASE FOR WAR
The non-economic motives of war—Moral and psychological—The importance of these pleas—English, German, and American exponents—The biological plea.
Perhaps the commonest plea urged in objection to the case presented in the first part of this book is that the real motives of nations in going to war are not economic at all; that their conflicts arise from moral causes, using that word in its largest sense; that they are the outcome of conflicting views of rights; or that they arise from, not merely non-economic, but also non-rational causes—from vanity, rivalry, pride of place, the desire to be first, to occupy a great situation in the world, to have power or prestige; from quick resentment of insult or injury; from temper; the unreasoned desire, which comes of quarrel or disagreement, to dominate a rival at all costs; from the "inherent hostility" that exists between rival nations; from the contagion of sheer passion, the blind strife of mutually hating men; and generally because men and nations always have fought and always will, and because, like the animals in Watt's doggerel, "it is their nature to."
An expression of the first point of view is embodied in the criticism of an earlier edition of this book, in which the critic says: