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The early theoretical development of Konrad Lorenz The motivating factors behind his instinct concept
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Brigandt, Ingo |
| Copyright Year | 2004 |
| Abstract | The present study discusses the early theoretical development of Konrad Lorenz in the period from 1930 to 1937. In this period Lorenz developed his position on instinct in the first place, and thus his theoretical views were subject to change. Despite this change, the paper points to relatively stable features of Lorenz’s approach, which emerged relatively soon in his scientific career and guided his theoretical development in this and beyond this early phase. The focus is on the emergence of Lorenz’s instinct concept—his main theoretical and conceptual innovation, which proved to be fundamental for the formation of ethology as a scientific discipline. Peculiar to Lorenz’s position from early on is the strong dichotomy between the innate and the learned: there are neither ontogenetic nor phylogenetic transitions between innate and learned components of behavior. Instinctive behavior patterns are rigid and do not get modified or become more flexible due to experience in the course of ontogeny; and flexible or intelligent behavior does not evolve from instinctive behavior. When formulating this position Lorenz contradicted virtually all former and contemporary assumptions about instinctive behavior. His innate-learned distinction became subject to vigorous criticism by psychologists in the 50s and 60s. Despite this critique Lorenz never abandoned his strong innate-learned dichotomy. I view Lorenz’s early theoretical development as being guided by four conceptual and methodological decisions as to how to study and explain behavior. These aspects, which were part of the general approach of Lorenz but not of other animal psychologists, were crucial in bringing about his specific position on instinctive behavior. These four general aspects of Lorenz’s approach are: 1) the idea that the study of innateness has primacy over studying THE EARLY THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF KONRAD LORENZ 2 learning, 2) the idea that we need a physiological rather than a psychological explanation of behavior; 3) the taxonomic and phylogenetic approach to behavior; 4) and the use of ideas from experimental embryology to think about the development of behavioral characters. The taxonomic-phylogenetic approach was particularly crucial in promoting Lorenz’s idea that innate behavior patterns do not evolve into flexible behavior components. Other approaches in animal psychology did not endorse these four components, and this difference in perspective explains why it came for instance to a clash between the Lorenzian ethologists and the Dutch purposivists tradition in animal psychology. Lorenz developed his early theory of instinct primarily on his own. Several of the intellectual influences on Lorenz are best viewed not as providing direct contributions to Lorenz’s ideas but as supporting his general approach as embodied in the four aspects of his framework. The origin of ethology as a scientific discipline was first and foremost due to the intellectual efforts of Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen. After the second world war it was largely Tinbergen rather than Lorenz who developed new theoretical ideas and who was concerned about the institutional and intellectual unity of ethology (Burkhardt forthcoming). But most of the very ideas and concepts of ethology were formulated by Lorenz in the 30s. My discussion focuses on this theoretical development of Lorenz from 1930 to 1937, which was so important for the formation of his own ideas as well as the origin of ethology. The goal of the present paper is to understand the early development of Lorenz’s instinct concept by concentrating on some methodological and conceptual factors that were stable features of Lorenz’s perspective despite the fact that his views changed—factors that drove Lorenz’s intellectual development. Crucial about Lorenz’s theoretical ideas from early on is his distinction between innate and learned behavioral characters. Overall behavior sequences have to be analyzed into innate and learned components, and only the former qualify as instinct. The tradition in comparative psychology before Lorenz usually viewed instincts as innate rather than learned behavior THE EARLY THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF KONRAD LORENZ 3 features, but Lorenz breaks with this tradition by endorsing a fundamental innate-learned dichotomy. For unlike everyone else before him he assumed that there are neither ontogenetic nor phylogenetic transitions between instinctive and insightful behavior. On Lorenz’s account, instincts are inflexible and do not get modified by learning during ontogeny at all. Moreover, instincts do not evolve into more flexible or learning-based behavior components, that is, an instinct is never homologous to insightful behavior. When Lorenz was formulating his idea, the theory that instincts are phylogenetically derived from habits—as defended by Romanes— was often criticized because of its seeming Lamarckist views of inheritance. However, Lorenz’s contemporaries generally assumed both that instincts get ontogenetically modified by experience and that insightful and flexible behavior evolved from instinctive and inflexible behavior. For this reason, Lorenz’s instinct concept was a complete novelty. After the second world was, Lorenz’s strong innate-learned dichotomy was subject to vigorous criticism from animal psychologists, most prominently Lehrman (1953). Many ethologists abandoned the assumption that the difference between the innate and the learned is to be viewed as a dichotomy rather than a continuum. However, this is paper not about the scientific merits of Lorenz’s or the innateness concept in general. Instead my discussion is purely historical in that I want to understand Lorenz’s early theoretical development and his central theoretical views such as his instinct concept and his innate-learned distinction. My goal is not to retell the often well-known details about Lorenz’s theoretical development. Rather, we can understand Lorenz’s theoretical development by paying attention to some general and unchanging features of Lorenz’s approach. I view Lorenz’s theoretical development as being guided by four conceptual and methodological decisions as 1 Burkhardt (forthcoming) gives a masterful discussion of the intellectual history of ethology and in particular of the contribution of Lorenz and Tinbergen. For a biography of Lorenz see Taschwer and Föger (2003). THE EARLY THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF KONRAD LORENZ 4 to how to study and explain behavior. These aspects, which were part of the general approach of Lorenz but not of other animal psychologists, were crucial in bringing about his specific position on instinctive behavior. In a nutshell, the four factors motivating Lorenz’s instinct concept are: 1) the idea that the study of innateness has primacy over studying learning, 2) the idea that we need a physiological rather than a psychological explanation of behavior; 3) the taxonomic and phylogenetic approach to behavior; 4) and the use of ideas from experimental embryology to think about the development of behavioral characters. The taxonomicphylogenetic approach was particularly crucial in promoting Lorenz’s idea that innate behavior patterns do not evolve into flexible behavior components. Other approaches in animal psychology did not endorse these four components, and this difference in perspective explains why it came for instance to a clash between the Lorenzian ethologists and the Dutch purposivists tradition in animal psychology. Lorenz developed his theory of instinct until 1937 for the most part on his own. As I will explain later in more detail, several of the intellectual influences on Lorenz in this period of time are best viewed not as providing direct contributions to Lorenz’s ideas but as supporting his general approach as embodied in the four factors of his framework. The development of Lorenz’s early ideas As Lorenz’s early ideas on instinct are for the most part well-known, I do not intend to give a detailed overview of his theoretical development. Rather, I will briefly recall those aspects of his conceptual development that are relevant for the present paper. This includes in particular his intellectual influences. The focus will be on the development of his ideas on instinct and innateness, so that the next section can lay out and discuss the influence of the above mentioned four factors on his theoretical development. The function of this section is to provide a chronological framework for the following more thematic and conceptual discussion. THE EARLY THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF KONRAD LORENZ 5 Lorenz’s first important publication, appearing in 1931, gives a detailed overview of the observations that Lorenz conducted with his jackdaws (Lorenz 1931). It is non-theoretical insofar as to does not offer explicit reflections about the nature or definition of instinct. But the paper embodies a focus on certain behavioral phenomena and uses criteria of innateness. In fact, it is very much a paper like the ones Lorenz’s scientific mentor Oskar Heinroth wrote. Rather than using the term ‘instinct’ (or ‘Instinkt’), Lorenz adopts Heinroth’s term ‘Triebhandlung’, which refers primarily to innate motor patterns, particular bodily movements that are part of the overall behavior of an individual. From early on, Lorenz focuses in his observations and discussion mainly on what later will be called fixed action patterns. Lorenz assumes two criteria of innateness: first, that a certain type of behavior is always performed in the same manner even though in certain situations a different behavior may be more adaptive (Lorenz says that that these behavioral patterns are sometimes carried out reflex-like). The second criterion is that these ‘Triebhandlungen’ are elicited in a relatively specific situation (foreshadowing the later concept of an innate releasing mechanism). In this very early period of Lorenz’s intellectual development, his mentor Oskar Heinroth was of crucial import |
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| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ualberta.ca/~brigandt/instinct_centennial.pdf |
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| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
