The Theory of Cooperative Evil From the Neurobiology of Aggression to Moralized Violence

Human civilization represents a paradox. On one hand, humans are the most cooperative species on the planet, capable of creating complex forms of collaboration, legal institutions, and moral systems. On the other hand, human societies have produced the most forms of violence and destruction in history. This article proposes to examine this paradox through the lens of the evolution of different forms of evil. The starting point of the analysis is the neurobiology of human behavior. The human brain evolved in the context of small coalitional groups and is adept at recognizing immediate threats, individual aggression, and violations of local norms. However, these same cognitive mechanisms are significantly worse at recognizing systemic forms of harm that arise in complex social structures, where responsibility is distributed among many participants and mediated by institutions. Based on this premise, a classification of forms of evil is proposed, including impulsive (affective) violence, instrumental evil, coalitional group violence, institutional evil arising within social systems, and ideological evil associated with mass mobilization and the construction of collective identities. These forms can be viewed as a ``ladder'' of the historical evolution of evil, where each new step emerges alongside increased social complexity and the development of new mechanisms of cooperation. The article also discusses the paradox of civilization: as history develops, the frequency of direct personal violence may decrease due to law, moral norms, and state institutions, while the potential destructiveness of social systems and technologies increases \cite{Pinker2011}. Therefore, social progress can be understood not so much as the gradual disappearance of evil, but rather as an expansion of society's capacity to recognize its own forms of violence and create mechanisms to constrain them. The main hypothesis of the article is that the most dangerous forms of evil arise not from biological impulses, but from the mechanisms of human cooperation.