The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4): A Plain Story Simply ToldThomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur)
Science
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4): A Plain Story Simply Told
Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur)
Science
From a physiological point of view instinctive behaviour is like a chain
of compound reflex actions, but in some cases, at least, there is reason
to believe that the behaviour is suffused with awareness and backed by
endeavour. This is suggested in exceptional cases where the stereotyped
routine is departed from to meet exceptional conditions. It should also
be noted that just as ants, hive bees, and wasps exhibit in most cases
purely instinctive behaviour, but move on occasion on the main line of
trial and error or of experimental initiative, so among birds and
mammals the intelligent behaviour is sometimes replaced by instinctive
routine. Perhaps there is no instinctive behaviour without a spice of
intelligence, and no intelligent behaviour without an instinctive
element. The old view that instinctive behaviour was originally
intelligent, and that instinct is "lapsed intelligence," is a tempting
one, and is suggested by the way in which habitual intelligent actions
cease in the individual to require intelligent control, but it rests on
the unproved hypothesis that the acquisitions of the individual can be
entailed on the race. It is almost certain that instinct is on a line of
evolution quite different from intelligence, and that it is nearer to
the inborn inspirations of the calculating boy or the musical genius
than to the plodding methods of intelligent learning.
Animal Intelligence
The higher reaches of the inclined plane of behaviour show intelligence
in the strict sense. They include those kinds of behaviour which cannot
be described without the suggestion that the animal makes some sort of
perceptual inference, not only profiting by experience but learning by
ideas. Such intelligent actions show great individual variability; they
are plastic and adjustable in a manner rarely hinted at in connection
with instincts where routine cannot be departed from without the
creature being nonplussed; they are not bound up with particular
circumstances as instinctive actions are, but imply an appreciative
awareness of relations.
When there is an experimenting with general ideas, when there is
_conceptual_ as contrasted with _perceptual_ inference, we speak of
Reason, but there is no evidence of this below the level of man. It is
not, indeed, always that we can credit man with rational conduct, but he
has the possibility of it ever within his reach.
Animal instinct and intelligence will be illustrated in another part of
this work. We are here concerned simply with the general question of the
evolution of behaviour. There is a main line of tentative experimental
behaviour both below and above the level of intelligence, and it has
been part of the tactics of evolution to bring about the hereditary
enregistration of capacities of effective response, the advantages being
that the answers come more rapidly and that the creature is left free,
if it chooses, for higher adventures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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