THE MONKEYSPHERE

The Monkeysphere

The Monkeysphere, otherwise known as Dunbar's number, is an absolutely brilliant theory of sociology, government, philosophy, and human nature. Fundamentally, the theory is based off a study of the social organization of monkeys; how they organize and how they govern themselves.

Due to the size of a monkey's brain, most great apes and chimpanzees develop tribe-like family units, living together in communities. Thus, they are capable of forming attachments, relationships, and connections with a maximum number of about 50 other primates. Any more is too much, and so groups and communities are never more than 50 members. Any other primate they come into contact with would be seen as a stranger and not part of the group, and thus those monkeys cannot identify, relate, or empathize with any other monkey outside of their sphere of community.

So that is why you might have monkeys living together harmoniously within a group, while waging war and fighting for food, resources, etc with any other monkey not in their sphere of community.

Scientists at Yale University conducted a study similar to Dunbar's number, however, with a different species of primate. The study concluded that humans, being 98% genetically similar to a chimpanzee, have a similar limit and capacity to their group sizes and communities. That number, dunbar's number, is 150.

Humans are naturally social creatures and this academically accepted theory has found that most humans have approximately only 150 other humans that they can have relationships with. And in those communities, humans live harmoniously. So is this the reason one human can kill another, commit acts of cruelty, and thrust middle fingers at each other while driving? Because they cannot relate to them, think of them as friends and family?

And is this why great peacemakers and leaders like Jesus, Ghandi, Schweitzer, and M.L. King can "love thy neighbor"? Because they have extended their monkeyspheres to all of humanity?
Please check out this enlightening article for those answers and a better explanation on this info:

http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

as well as wikis official writeup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

John Locke

On the fateful fay of August 29, 1632, John Locke was born. Raised into a life of education, Locke became a scholar and philosopher. He became the author of many writings and philosophical works, influencing the world's thinkers to this day. One of his prominent ideals was that man is born with a blank slate, a "tabula rasa" lacking innate ideals. His argument contributed to the environment side of the nature vrs. nurture debate, maintaining that man's personality, behavior, and intelligence are determined by the social environment he lives in. Locke's tabula rasa thesis postulated that man is born neither good nor evil, devoid of kind or mean tendencies. Do you think that Locke was right? That humans are born with that blank slate and we are determined by the world we live in? Or do you believe that man is innately good or evil, and all his actions are determined by that hereditary predisposition? Locke's tabula rasa theory inspires such questions. His theory contradicted philosophers of his day who said that humans were instictually evil and aggressive or good and kind. Despite all the theories on Locke's ideas, what do you think about the tabula rasa? Are we born with that blank slate or instinctually good or evil? Or are we none of the above?