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University of Tartu Department of Semiotics Laura Kiiroja the ZOOSEMIOTICS of SOCIALIZATION
University of Tartu Department of Semiotics Laura Kiiroja THE ZOOSEMIOTICS OF SOCIALIZATION: CASE-STUDY IN SOCIALIZING RED FOX (VULPES VULPES) IN TANGEN ANIMAL PARK, NORWAY Master’s Thesis Supervisors: Timo Maran, Ph.D Nelly Mäekivi, M.A Tartu 2014 CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….4 1. The theoretical aspects of keeping wild animals in captivity ………………………………7 1.1. The main arguments on the ethics of keeping animals in captivity……………….7 1.2. Modern viewpoints on animal welfare……………………………………………9 1.3. Modern viewpoints on animal behaviour………………………………………..13 1.3.1. Behavioural display and animal welfare……………………………….14 1.4. The role of enrichment in animal welfare………………………………………..17 1.4.1. The essence of animal training in zoos………………………………...19 1.5. The importance of human-animal relationships in the zoo………………………21 1.5.1. The importance of Umwelt consideration……………………………...23 1.5.1.1. The functional circle ………………………………………...24 1.5.2. The effect of zoo visitors on animal welfare…………………………..26 1.5.3. The effect of keeper-animal relationships on animal welfare………….28 1.6. Explaining animal communication…………………………………………........30 1.7. Socialization – a method of improving welfare of captive animals……………...36 1.7.1. The need for socialization……………………………………………...37 1.7.2. The basic mechanisms of socialization………………………………...38 2. The research methodology of a zoosemiotic approach to socialization …………………...40 2.1. Thick description of socialization………………………………………………..40 2.2. Actor-orientedness of the research……………………………………………….42 2.3. Participatory observation………………………………………………………...43 2.4. The dimensions of interpretations presented in the thesis ………………………44 3. Case-study of the socialization of Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)………………………………46 3.1. General methods of socialization………………………………………………..46 3.1.1. -
Called “Talking Animals” Taught Us About Human Language?
Linguistic Frontiers • 1(1) • 14-38 • 2018 DOI: 10.2478/lf-2018-0005 Linguistic Frontiers Representational Systems in Zoosemiotics and Anthroposemiotics Part I: What Have the So- Called “Talking Animals” Taught Us about Human Language? Research Article Vilém Uhlíř* Theoretical and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences. Charles University. Viničná 7, 12843 Praha 2, Czech Republic Received ???, 2018; Accepted ???, 2018 Abstract: This paper offers a brief critical review of some of the so-called “Talking Animals” projects. The findings from the projects are compared with linguistic data from Homo sapiens and with newer evidence gleaned from experiments on animal syntactic skills. The question concerning what had the so-called “Talking Animals” really done is broken down into two categories – words and (recursive) syntax. The (relative) failure of the animal projects in both categories points mainly to the fact that the core feature of language – hierarchical recursive syntax – is missing in the pseudo-linguistic feats of the animals. Keywords: language • syntax • representation • meta-representation • zoosemiotics • anthroposemiotics • talking animals • general cognition • representational systems • evolutionary discontinuity • biosemiotics © Sciendo 1. The “Talking Animals” Projects For the sake of brevity, I offer a greatly selective review of some of the more important “Talking Animals” projects. Please note that many omissions were necessary for reasons of space. The “thought climate” of the 1960s and 1970s was formed largely by the Skinnerian zeitgeist, in which it seemed possible to teach any animal to master any, or almost any, skill, including language. Perhaps riding on an ideological wave, following the surprising claims of Fossey [1] and Goodall [2] concerning primates, as well as the claims of Lilly [3] and Batteau and Markey [4] concerning dolphins, many scientists and researchers focussed on the continuities between humans and other species, while largely ignoring the discontinuities and differences. -
Animal Welfare and the Paradox of Animal Consciousness
ARTICLE IN PRESS Animal Welfare and the Paradox of Animal Consciousness Marian Dawkins1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 1Corresponding author: e-mail address: [email protected] Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Animal Consciousness: The Heart of the Paradox 2 2.1 Behaviorism Applies to Other People Too 5 3. Human Emotions and Animals Emotions 7 3.1 Physiological Indicators of Emotion 7 3.2 Behavioral Components of Emotion 8 3.2.1 Vacuum Behavior 10 3.2.2 Rebound 10 3.2.3 “Abnormal” Behavior 10 3.2.4 The Animal’s Point of View 11 3.2.5 Cognitive Bias 15 3.2.6 Expressions of the Emotions 15 3.3 The Third Component of Emotion: Consciousness 16 4. Definitions of Animal Welfare 24 5. Conclusions 26 References 27 1. INTRODUCTION Consciousness has always been both central to and a stumbling block for animal welfare. On the one hand, the belief that nonhuman animals suffer and feel pain is what draws many people to want to study animal welfare in the first place. Animal welfare is seen as fundamentally different from plant “welfare” or the welfare of works of art precisely because of the widely held belief that animals have feelings and experience emotions in ways that plants or inanimate objectsdhowever valuableddo not (Midgley, 1983; Regan, 1984; Rollin, 1989; Singer, 1975). On the other hand, consciousness is also the most elusive and difficult to study of any biological phenomenon (Blackmore, 2012; Koch, 2004). Even with our own human consciousness, we are still baffled as to how Advances in the Study of Behavior, Volume 47 ISSN 0065-3454 © 2014 Elsevier Inc. -
1 a SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY in ZOOSEMIOTICS Abram, David
A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY IN ZOOSEMIOTICS Abram, David 1997. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Random House. Abram, David 2010. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Pantheon Books. Ackerman, Diane 1991. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage Books. Argyle, Michael 1988. Bodily Communication. New York: Methuen. Barbieri, Marcello 2003. The Organic Codes. An Introduction to Semantic Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bateson, Gregory 1972. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Ballantine. Bekoff, Marc 2007. The Emotional Lives of Animals. Novato, Canada: New World Library. Bekoff, Marc 2008. Animals at Play. Rules of the Game. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Bekoff, Marc; Pierce, Jessica 2009. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Böll, Mette Miriam Rakel 2008. Social is emotional. Biosemiotics 1: 329–345. Bouissac, Paul 2010. Semiotics at the Circus. Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Bradbury, Jack W.; Vehrencamp, Sandra L. 2011. Principles of Animal Communication, 2nd Ed. Sunderland: Sinauer. Brock, Friedrich 1939. Typenlehre und Umweltforschung: Grundlegung einer idealistischen Biologie (= Bios vol. 9). Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosium Barth. Buchanan, Brett 2008. Onto-ethologies: The Animal Environments of Uexküll, Heidegger, Merleau, and Deleuze. New York: SUNY Press. Burghardt, Gordon M. 2008. Updating von Uexküll: New directions in communication research. Journal of Comparative Psychology 122, 332–334. Carmeli, Yoram S. 2003. On human-to-animal communication: Biosemiotics and folk perceptions in zoos and circuses. Semiotica 146(3/4): 51–68. Chang, Han-liang 2003. Notes towards a semiotics of parasitism. Sign Systems Studies 31.2: 421–439. -
How to Behave in a Beehive Eusociality, What Is It? the Colony
1/6-2017 How to behave in a beehive Krisztina Csiki Popular scientific review of Independent Project in Biology 2017 Biology Education Centre, Uppsala University Did you know that the European honeybee has other interesting properties besides producing honey? It is a widely studied insect today, but the fascination goes back to the19th century and Sir Charles Darwin. So what is this fascination about? They have a strange genetic makeup which is very different from ours. How can a female be more related to her sister than to her offspring, and why are some individuals sterile? Moreover, some bees seem to work every waking hour while others spend their time doing practically nothing! Eusociality, what is it? Honeybees are social animals. However, their social system is organized in a different fashion than ours. Eusociality is in fact the most advanced social system known in the animal kingdom! What makes it special is that it is made up of large colonies where the tasks of guarding, nursing, foraging and reproducing are divided amongst its members. Individuals are usually born into performing particular tasks and are unable to change this. Moreover, at least some members in these systems are sterile, and others help the reproducers to nurse offspring. Many theories have tried to explaining this behaviour. They all hope to answer the question why sterile individuals have evolved. The most famous theory is called kin selection, which is a modification of Darwin’s theory. It suggests that the gene - rather than the individual itself - is the fundamental unit of selection. It is thus the gene that “wants” to survive. -
The Strange Survival and Apparent Resurgence of Sociobiology
This is a repository copy of The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/118157/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Dennis, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-4625-1123 (2018) The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. History of the Human Sciences, 31 (1). pp. 19-35. ISSN 0952- 6951 https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695117735966 Dennis A. The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. History of the Human Sciences. 2018;31(1):19-35. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695117735966. Article available under the terms of the CC- BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence only allows you to download this work and share it with others as long as you credit the authors, but you can’t change the article in any way or use it commercially. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology Abstract A recent dispute between Richard Dawkins and Edward O. Wilson concerning fundamental concepts in sociobiology is examined. -
Learning Vs. Instinct *Dichotomy = Two-Part Classification
8/28/2012 The Study of Behavior Humans vs. Animals Historical Background Descarte in 1600’s: animal’s behavior governed Shakespeare on solely by the laws of Instincts physics, “I’ll never be such a whereas human beings had a gosling to obey instinct, soul, which was thought to but stand as if a man reside in the pineal gland ... were author of himself and knew no other kin.” Humans, unlike animals, had -- Corolianus , ca. 1608 free will. The learning-instinct dichotomy Cartesians created a dichotomy* : Eventually known that animals could humans as reasoning beings learn, and behavior still pitched as: vs. animals as automata learning vs. instinct *dichotomy = two-part classification 1 8/28/2012 Evolution by Use and Disuse Lamarck on Instincts “…the continued use of any organ leads to its development, strengthens it, and even enlarges it, “ “By instinct is meant the fixed tendencies displayed by animals in while permanent disuse of any organ is their actions; injurious to its development, causes it to deteriorate and ultimately disappear if and many people have held that these the disuse continues for a long period tendencies are the produce of a reasoned choice, through successive generations.” J-B. de Lamarck and therefore the fruit of experience.” Philosophie Zoologique (1809) Will body-building cause one’s children Problem with Lamarck’s Theory to be more muscular from birth? ◊ Required effects of environment on non- reproductive tissue be transmitted to NO! DNA in gametes ◊ ‘Refuted’ by August Weismann in early 1900’s 2 8/28/2012 Charles Darwin, 1809-1882 ◊ Dropped out of medical school ◊ Studied theology at Cambridge ◊ Held lifelong interest in nature 1831-1836 Naturalist aboard the H.M.S. -
Sociobiology
SOCIOBIOLOGY C. George Boeree Ever since Darwin came out with his theory of evolution, people - including Darwin himself -- have been speculating on how our social behaviors (and feelings, attitudes, and so on) might also be affected by evolution. After all, if the way our bodies look and work as biological creatures can be better understood through evolution, why not the things we do with those bodies? The entemologist E. O Wilson was the first to formalize the idea that social behavior could be explained evolutionarily, and he called his theory sociobiology. At first, it gained attention only in biological circles -- even there it had strong critics. When sociologists and psychologists caught wind of it, the controversy really got started. At that time, sociology was predominantly structural-functionalist, with a smattering of Marxists and feminists. Psychology was still dominated by behaviorist learning theory, with humanism starting to make some headway. Not one of these theories has much room for the idea that we, as human beings, could be so strongly determined by evolutionary biology! Over time, Wilson's sociobiology found more and more supporters among biologists, psychologists, and even anthropologists. Only sociology has remained relatively unaffected. Instinct Let's begin with an example of instinctual behavior in animals: The three- spined stickleback is a one-inch long fish that one can find in the rivers and lakes of Europe. Springtime is, as you might expect, the mating season for the mighty stickleback and the perfect time to see instincts in action. Certain changes occur in their appearances: The male, normally dull, becomes red above the midline. -
Thomas A. Sebeok and Biology: Building Biosemiotics
Cybernetics And Human Knowing. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. xx-xx Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics Kalevi Kull1 Abstract: The paper attempts to review the impact of Thomas A. Sebeok (1920–2001) on biosemiotics, or semiotic biology, including both his work as a theoretician in the field and his activity in organising, publishing, and communicating. The major points of his work in the field of biosemiotics concern the establishing of zoosemiotics, interpretation and development of Jakob v. Uexküll’s and Heini Hediger’s ideas, typological and comparative study of semiotic phenomena in living organisms, evolution of semiosis, the coincidence of semiosphere and biosphere, research on the history of biosemiotics. Keywords: semiotic biology, zoosemiotics, endosemiotics, biosemiotic paradigm, semiosphere, biocommunication, theoretical biology “Culture,” so-called, is implanted in nature; the environment, or Umwelt, is a model generated by the organism. Semiosis links them. T. A. Sebeok (2001c, p. vii) When an organic body is dead, it does not carry images any more. This is a general feature that distinguishes complex forms of life from non-life. The images of the organism and of its images, however, can be carried then by other, living bodies. The images are singular categories, which means that they are individual in principle. The identity of organic images cannot be of mathematical type, because it is based on the recognition of similar forms and not on the sameness. The organic identity is, therefore, again categorical, i.e., singular. Thus, in order to understand the nature of images, we need to know what life is, we need biology — a biology that can deal with phenomena of representation, recognition, categorisation, communication, and meaning. -
HS138 Syllabus
HistSci 138. Sex, Gender, and Evolution Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 am - 11 am, Northwest Building B101 Weekly section, TBA Prof. Sarah Richardson [email protected] Office hours: Wednesdays, 10 am – 12 pm, online sign-up Myrna Perez, TF [email protected] Office hours: TBA Course Description: Evolutionary theories of sex and gender and central controversies in human evolutionary biology from Darwin to the present. Topics include debates over the theory of sexual selection and the evolutionary basis of monogamy, sexual preference, physical attraction, rape, maternal instinct, and sex differences in cognition. Readings: primary texts and historical, philosophical, and feminist analyses. Texts: Required texts (marked [T] on the syllabus) are available for purchase at the Harvard Coop. Additional required readings (marked [E] on the syllabus) are available via the course website. 1. Londa Schiebinger. Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. 2. Cynthia Russett. Sexual Science: The Victorian Construction of Womanhood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. 3. Diane Paul. Controlling Human Heredity, 1865 to the Present. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanities Books, 1995. 4. Martha McCaughey. The Caveman Mystique. N.Y.: Routledge, 2008. 5. Joan Roughgarden. Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Course Requirements: This course requires 100-200 pages of reading/week, regular attendance, participation in a weekly discussion section, 3 entries on the class blog, and completion of three 5-7 pp. analytical papers or multimedia essays. There will be five essay assignments, corresponding to the units of the course. -
Why Magnets May Repel Mosquitoes and Other Predatory Insects Thesis 'Theory in Practice' by Stephen Verdon, Ph.D
Why Magnets may Repel Mosquitoes and other Predatory Insects Thesis 'Theory in Practice' by Stephen Verdon, Ph.D. Mosquitoes are literally wired for hunting. These predators are equipped with a special sense known as Electroreception which allows them to home in on their prey with precise accuracy. Other members of the Mosquito family also share this trait but the Common Mosquitoes Electroreception (Electroreceptive animals use this sense to locate objects around them) are the extremely finely tuned. Electroreception is used in electrolocation (detecting objects) and for electrocommunication. Electroreception simply means the ability to detect Electrical or Magnetic currents. What does electricity have to do with Mosquitoes? Any muscular movement or twitches in living animals create a small electrical current. At hospitals, electrocardiogram machines track the electricity resulting from our heart beat. Bees for example, collect a positive static charge while flying through the air (see Atmospheric electricity). When a bee visits a flower, the charge deposited on the flower takes a while to leak away into the ground. Bees can detect both the presence and the pattern of electric fields on flowers, and use this information to know if a flower has been recently visited by another bee and is therefore likely to have a reduced concentration of pollen. The mechanism of electric field reception in animals living in the air like bees is based on mechano- reception, not electroreception. Bees receive the electric field changes via the Johnston's organs in their antennae and possibly other mechano-receptors. They distinguish different temporal patterns and learn them. During the waggle dance, Honeybees appear to use the electric field emanating from the dancing bee for distance communication. -
Sebeok As a Semiotician Semiotics and Its Masters (Past and Present) Session Prof
Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies. Sofia 2014, 16–20 September, New Bulgarian University, Montevideo 21, Sofia 1618, Bulgaria http://semio2014.org/en/home; http://semio2014.org/en/sebeok-as-a-semiotician Thursday, 16 September 2014, 14:00–19:00 h Sebeok as a semiotician Semiotics and its Masters (past and present) session prof. emeritus VILMOS VOIGT ([email protected]) Thomas A. Sebeok (Budapest 9 November 1920 – Bloomington 21 December 2001) There should be a discussion on the major topic and results of Sebeok’s semiotic activity. He started as a Finno-Ugrist linguist, and then moved to general linguistics and communication theory and non-verbal communication. Then he became an outliner and historiographer of semiotics, the founding father of “zoosemiotics”, and of a classical style “biosemiotics”. He did more than anybody else for international congresses, teaching and publication of worldwide semiotics. He was a central knot of the “semiotic web”. There are still many persons who have known and remember him. Abstracts: 1) EERO TARASTI , University of Helsinki, President of the IASS/AIS (([email protected]) The Sebeokian Vision of Semiotics. From Finno-Ugrian Studies via Zoosemiotics to Bio- and Global Semiotics 2) Hongbing Yu, Nanjing Normal Univeristy, Nanjing, China ([email protected]) The Sebeokian Synthesis of Two Seemingly Contrary Traditions—Viewed from China The prevailing dominance of Peircean studies of signs in the West, the witness of which is manifestly borne by a 1988 paper entitled “Why we prefer Peirce to Saussure” written by one of the major contemporary scholars on Peirce, T.L. Short, has been well-acknowledged in the domain Chinese semiotics.