Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III

Darwin states that the object of this chapter is to show that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculty. First of all he discusses the instincts of man and apes. He even suggests that apes in the wild may learn things like which plants are poisonou...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Format: Book
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man/Chapter_III
id ftwikibooks:enwikibooks:6343:36166
record_format openpolar
spelling ftwikibooks:enwikibooks:6343:36166 2024-06-23T07:52:32+00:00 Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man/Chapter_III eng eng Book ftwikibooks 2024-06-09T12:11:50Z Darwin states that the object of this chapter is to show that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculty. First of all he discusses the instincts of man and apes. He even suggests that apes in the wild may learn things like which plants are poisonous from other apes. He also mentions how birds on deserted islands appear to inherit a fear of man while the sterile worker bees and ants appear to acquire their instincts spontaneously. Darwin states that people underrate the mental powers of the higher animals and especially of man. He stresses the development of the mental organs through variability and natural selection. He quotes Wallace on the difference between how people learn to make things and how animals learn to make their homes. He comments on animal behavior that show they feel pleasure and pain happiness and misery as well as terror courage and suspicion . Darwin also relates anecdotes about maternal behavior of female animals especially monkeys and shame and playfulness in dogs. In discussing the higher mental faculties Darwin describes animal curiosity the need for stimulation and the abilities to imitate and focus attention. He also makes some questionable statements regarding animal imagination and memory i.e. that animals can judge of the intervals of time between recurrent events and that some dogs howling is the result of fantastic images from their own minds. In discussing examples of reason in animals Darwin mentions anecdotes reported by others of eskimo dogs elephants bears fish and monkeys and related them to his observations of his own children s behavior as infants. He also describes animal toolmaking as reported by many other sources. He speculates that higher reasoning like self awareness evolved from simpler reasoning. And he also comments on animal communication and their ability to understand human languages. In showing the relationship between the development of language and the brain Darwin refers to the writings of contemporaries. ... Book eskimo* WikiBooks - Open-content textbooks
institution Open Polar
collection WikiBooks - Open-content textbooks
op_collection_id ftwikibooks
language English
description Darwin states that the object of this chapter is to show that there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculty. First of all he discusses the instincts of man and apes. He even suggests that apes in the wild may learn things like which plants are poisonous from other apes. He also mentions how birds on deserted islands appear to inherit a fear of man while the sterile worker bees and ants appear to acquire their instincts spontaneously. Darwin states that people underrate the mental powers of the higher animals and especially of man. He stresses the development of the mental organs through variability and natural selection. He quotes Wallace on the difference between how people learn to make things and how animals learn to make their homes. He comments on animal behavior that show they feel pleasure and pain happiness and misery as well as terror courage and suspicion . Darwin also relates anecdotes about maternal behavior of female animals especially monkeys and shame and playfulness in dogs. In discussing the higher mental faculties Darwin describes animal curiosity the need for stimulation and the abilities to imitate and focus attention. He also makes some questionable statements regarding animal imagination and memory i.e. that animals can judge of the intervals of time between recurrent events and that some dogs howling is the result of fantastic images from their own minds. In discussing examples of reason in animals Darwin mentions anecdotes reported by others of eskimo dogs elephants bears fish and monkeys and related them to his observations of his own children s behavior as infants. He also describes animal toolmaking as reported by many other sources. He speculates that higher reasoning like self awareness evolved from simpler reasoning. And he also comments on animal communication and their ability to understand human languages. In showing the relationship between the development of language and the brain Darwin refers to the writings of contemporaries. ...
format Book
title Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
spellingShingle Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
title_short Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
title_full Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
title_fullStr Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
title_full_unstemmed Wikibooks: The Descent of Man/Chapter III
title_sort wikibooks: the descent of man/chapter iii
url https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man/Chapter_III
genre eskimo*
genre_facet eskimo*
_version_ 1802643871501385728