[Note 62] p. 260.—The Monkey Question.
The position of evolutionists in regard to the relations of man and monkeys is conveniently stated in Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature. A criticism of the thorough-going evolutionist position, from the philosopher’s point of view, will be found in Professor Calderwood’s Evolution and Man’s Place in Nature. A midway position is indicated in Wallace’s Darwinism.
While most naturalists are now thoroughly evolutionist in regard to the descent or ascent of man, as in regard to other problems, most would probably agree with Lloyd Morgan’s cautious conclusion:—
“In denying to animals the perception of relations and the faculty of reason, I do so in no dogmatic spirit, and not in support of any preconceived theory or opinion, but because the evidence now before us is not, in my opinion, sufficient to justify the hypothesis that any animals have reached that stage of mental evolution at which they are even incipiently rational.”
Probably all naturalists allow that animals who profit by experience and adapt their actions to varying circumstances are intelligent. But cases which force us to credit animals with general ideas, with “thinking the therefore”, in short, with reason, are admitted by few.
LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS.
While admiring the vigorous protest which Brehm makes in this chapter against the interpretation which regards animals as automata, I feel that he has hardly done justice to it. In general terms, the interpretation is that animals act as they do in virtue of an inherited organic mechanism which responds in a uniform manner to certain stimuli. That this is true of many animal and even human actions, especially in early youth, seems highly probable. That it only covers a small fraction of animal behaviour is certain. But even those who go furthest in extending the scope of animal automatism, do not say that an automatic act may not be accompanied by consciousness, they only say that it is not controlled by consciousness. See Huxley, Are Animals automata? in his collected Essays: and Lloyd Morgan, Introduction to Comparative Psychology.
[Note 63] p. 272.—Sexual Selection.
For a statement of the doctrine of sexual selection, the original document—Darwin’s Descent of Man—should be consulted. But the theory has met with strong criticism, e.g. on the part of Alfred Russel Wallace, see his Darwinism. See also The Evolution of Sex, by Geddes and Thomson, and Lloyd Morgan’s Animal Life and Intelligence.
[Note 64] p. 279.—Polygamous Birds.