Author : Lewis Henry Morgan
Release : 2013-09
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Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 679/5 ( reviews)
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Book Synopsis The American Beaver and His Works by : Lewis Henry Morgan
Download or read book The American Beaver and His Works written by Lewis Henry Morgan. This book was released on 2013-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. Inquiries proposed -- Whether the Mutes possess a Mental Principle-- Whether its Qualities are similar to those manifested by the Human Mind--Whether the Differences are of Degree, or of Kind--Considerations from Structural Organization--The Principle of Life--Memory--Reason --Imagination--The Will--Appetites and Passions--Lunacy of Animals --General Conclusions. The popular mind has always been in advance of the metaphysicians with reference to the mental endowments of animals. For some reason there has been a perpetual hesitation among many of the latter to recognize, in the manifestations of the animal mind, the same characteristics that are displayed by the human intellect: lest the high position of man should be shaken or impaired. Besides this, the connection in man between the intellectual faculties and the moral sense is found to be so intimate, that the concession of the former has seemed, to cautious minds, to draw after it the necessary admission of the latter. In attempting to escape this imaginary dilemma, the metaphysicians have been betrayed, as it would seem, into a false position. This is shown by the invention, in modern times, of a vague, not to say fictitious, principle, with which all animals have been arbitrarily endowed for the government and maintenance of their lives. There can be no objection to the use of this principle, which is termed "instinct," to explain, or rather to leave unexplained, certain mental phenomena exhibited equally by mankind and the inferior animals, so long as it is restricted to those mental processes which are beyond the reach of consciousness. But the attempt to explain all the mental phenomena manifested by the mutes by means of an arbitrary term is an...
