Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human FacultyRomanes, George John
Science
Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human Faculty
Romanes, George John
Evolution; Psychology, Comparative
This, of course, is an exceedingly simple illustration, and I have
used it in order to make the further remark that actions depending
on recepts, although they often thus lie near to reflex actions, are
by no means bound to do so. On the contrary, as we shall immediately
find, actions depending on recepts are often so highly “intelligent,”
that in our own case it is impossible to draw the line between them
and actions depending on concepts. That is to say, in our own case
there is a large border-land where introspection is unable to determine
whether adjustive action is due to recepts or to concepts; and hence
it is only in the case of animals that we can be certain as to the
limits of intelligent adjustment which are possible under the operation
of recepts alone. The question therefore, now arises,—How far can
this process of spontaneous or unintentional comparing, sifting, and
combining go without the intentional co-operation of the conscious
agent? To what level of ideation can recepts attain without the aid of
concepts? We have seen in the last chapter that animals display generic
or receptual ideas of Good-for-eating, Not-good-for-eating, &c.; and
we know that in our own case we “instinctively” avoid placing our
hands in a flame, without requiring to formulate any proposition upon
the properties of flame. How far, then, can this kind of unnamed or
non-conceptional ideation extend? Or, in other words, how far can mind
travel without the vehicle of Language? For the reasons already given,
I will answer this question by fastening attention exclusively on the
mind of brutes.
* * * * *
To lead off with a few instances which have been already selected for
substantially the same purpose by Mr. Darwin:—
“Houzeau relates that, while crossing a wide and arid plain in Texas,
his two dogs suffered greatly from thirst, and that between thirty and
forty times they rushed down the hollows to search for water. These
hollows were not valleys, and there were no trees in them, or any other
difference in the vegetation; and as they were absolutely dry, there
could have been no smell of damp earth. The dogs behaved as if they
knew that a dip in the ground offered them the best chance of finding
water, and Houzeau has often witnessed the same behaviour in other
animals.”
I have myself frequently observed this association of ideas between
hollow ground and probability of finding water in the case of
setter-dogs, which require much water while working; and it is evident
that the ideas associated are of a character highly generic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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