Animal Life and Intelligence

It is difficult to realize the wealth, the variety, the diversity, of "animal life." Even if we endeavour to pass in review all that we have seen in woodland and meadow, in pond...

The phrase "mental evolution" clearly implies the existence of somewhat concerning which evolution can be predicated; and the adjective "mental" further implies that this somewh...

It is part of the essential nature of an animal to be receptive and responsive. The forces of nature rain their influence upon it; and it reacts to their influence in certain sp...

Everything, so far as in it lies, said Benedict Spinoza, tends to persist in its own being. This is _the law of persistence_. It forms the basis of Newton's First Law of Motion,...

The law of heredity, I have said above, may be regarded as that of persistence exemplified in a series of organic generations. Variation results--it is clear that it must result...

So soon as one of the higher animals comes into the world a number of simple vital activities are already in progress or are at once initiated. Some of these are what are termed...

Two things I have been especially anxious to bring out prominently in the foregoing chapter: first, that the world we see around us is a joint product of two factors--the outwar...

There is one aspect of the mental processes of men and animals that we have so far left unnoticed--the aspect of feeling, the aspect of pleasure and pain. Quite distinct from, a...

I have already drawn attention to the fact that the primary end and object of the reception of the influences (_stimuli_) of the external world, or environment, is to enable the...

We have now to turn to a fresh aspect of animal life, that of reproduction; and it will be well to connect this process as closely as possible with the process of life in genera...

I once asked a class of school-boys to write down for me in a few words what they considered the chief characteristics of animals. Here are some of the answers--

In the foregoing chapter, on "The Nature of Animal Life," we have seen that animals breathe, feed, grow, are sensitive, exhibit various activities, and reproduce their kind. The...

Is mind evolved from matter? 464 Kinesis and metakinesis 467 Monistic assumptions 470 The nature of ejects 476 The universe as eject 478 Metakinetic environment of mind 481 Conc...

Heredity in the protozoa 123 Regeneration of lost parts 124 Sexual reproduction and heredity 129 The problem of hen and egg 130 Reproductive continuity 131 Pangenesis 131 Modifi...

The nature of animal activities 415 The outer and inner aspect 417 The inherited organization 419 Habitual activities 420 Instinctive activities 422 Innate capacity 426 Blind pr...

The law of persistence 61 The occurrence of variations 63 Application of the law of increase 76 Natural selection 77 Elimination and selection 79 Modes of natural elimination il...

The two factors in phenomena 331 The basis in organic evolution 336 Perceptual construction in mammalia 338 Can animals analyze their constructs? 347 The generic difference betw...

Pleasure and pain: their organic limits 379 Their directive value 380 An emotion exemplified 382 Sensitiveness and sensibility 385 The expression of the emotions 385 The postpon...

The primary object of sensation 243 Organic sensations and the muscular sense 244 Touch 245 The temperature-sense 249 Taste 250 Smell 257 Hearing 261 Sense of rotation or accele...

The diversity of animal life 177 The evolution theory 181 Natural selection: not to be used as a magic formula 183 Panmixia and disuse 189 Sexual selection or preferential matin...

Reproduction in the protozoa 37 Fission in the metazoa 41 The regeneration of lost parts 41 Reproduction by budding 42 Sexual reproduction 42 Illustration of development 51 Pare...