As people become more confident that they will be free from violence, the incentive to build schools and write and read books becomes greater, which in turn encourages the use of reason instead of force to solve problems, which then reduces violence even further. We have experienced an “expanding circle” of empathy (philosopher Peter Singer’s term) that extends our sense of identification from narrow groups like clans to entire nations, then to people in foreign countries, and even to nonhuman animals.[171] There has also been a growing role for the rule of law and cultural norms against
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