Homo Pacis: Peace Capability as an Evolutionary Task for Humanity

Humanity has increased its ability to transform the external world on a scale that earlier generations could scarcely have anticipated. Science, technology, industrial production, global communication and military systems have multiplied the power of human action. The same developments have also extended the reach of potential harm. War, ecological destruction and threats to the foundations of shared life can now have consequences far beyond the immediate sphere of individuals and earlier societies. The Homo Pacis series addresses the developmental question that follows: what happens when a species’ external power grows faster than its capacity to deal with conflict, fear, difference, responsibility and the consequences of its own actions? Its central theoretical proposal is to understand peace capability as an evolutionary task for humanity. Evolution here means neither biological development into a new species nor inevitable historical progress. It refers to a cultural, ethical and psychosocial developmental step that requires learning and support, and that may also fail. The five volumes develop an interconnected architecture for this process. Peace capability is the foundational, action-oriented competence. Nine fields of experience and development describe different inner starting points for action. Consciousness capability refers to the ability to notice one’s own thoughts, feelings, bodily reactions and tendencies to act. Reality architecture examines how experience, language, emotional meaning, expectations and bodily experience structure subjective reality. This raises the question of how people can act responsibly together despite experiencing different emotional realities. The approach ultimately connects personal responsibility for practice with institutional conditions that make such development possible. The article reconstructs these connections and situates them in relation to approaches in peace psychology, peace education and evolutionary research. Homo Pacis serves as a guiding ideal of human maturity: the expansion of human power should be accompanied by a corresponding development of the capacity to take responsibility for its consequences. This task concerns both living together and our relationship with the natural world of which we are part. Personal learning acquires a cultural dimension when ways of acting that sustain peace are practised together, passed on and embedded in institutions.