Abstract
Severed from the parent body, the animal organism begins a life of its own. Its only inheritance is a set of reflex actions to help it over its immediate needs. By adapting this set to the special surroundings, modifying and extending it and gaining experience, the animal grows into a physical and mental individual. The human young here behave exactly like the chick running off with its eggshell and pecking at everything, or like the young alligator1 still dragging the shell attached to the umbilical cord while already snarling with open jaws and pouncing on any object brought near. The human young is less mature and less well furnished when it becomes a separate organism from its mother, whose physical and mental powers must long continue to make up for the child’s lack of independence.
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Notes
Morgan, Comparative Psychology, London 1894, p. 209.
Ibid., pp. 91, 254, 288, 301. My sister reports that a large St. Bernard managed to get rid of an abhorred muzzle by burying it. Soon afterwards a colleague told me of a dog hiding a whip.
Morgan, Animal Life, London 1891, p. 334. Good psychological and biological comments in Th. Zell (‘Ist das Tier unvernünftig’ in Tierfabeln, Stuttgart. Also, Das rechnende Pferd, Berlin). Very well observed is the distinction between visual and olfactory animals, and the law of economy. Zell assumes too much naiveté in his readers, which does not enhance his books.
Morgan, l.c., p. 339.
Ibid., p. 340.
Morgan, Comparative Psychology, p. 259. Schopenhauer’s dog knew a priori that every event has a cause and tried to find the latter in analogous cases without resorting to fetichism (Schopenhauer, Über die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde, Leipzig 1864 3rd ed., p. 76). In this remarkable way does a dog’s philosophy follow that of its observer.
Tylor, Einleitung in das Studium der Anthropologie, Brunswick 1883, p. 197.
It was hoped to reduce the migrations of birds to imitation, perhaps from a period when their goals were not yet separated by seas. New views and considerable puzzles in K. Graeser, Der Zug der Vögel, Berlin 1905.
However an Australian parrot is supposed to have conceived the notion of attacking and pecking at sheep, an example then copied by the other members of his species.
Cf. H. v. Buttel-Reepen, Die stammesgeschichtliche Entstehung der Bienenstaates, Leipzig 1903.
Tylor, Anthropologie, p. 246.
Diodorus III, 15, 22.
Tylor, l.c. p. 275.
Ibid., p. 290.
P 3, p. 293.
Ibid., p. 287.
Cf. Tylor, Urgeschichte der Menschheit, Leipzig Ambrosius Abel (undated). Also, Anthropologie. Otis T. Mason, The origins of invention, London 1895.
Wallaschek, Primitive Music, London 1893; enlarged German edition Leipzig 1903. In this book the practical significance of rhythm is discussed. Bücher (Arbeit und Rhythmus, Leipzig 1902, 3rd ed.) discusses this topic in a somewhat different fashion.
Bourdeau, Les Forces de l’Industrie, Paris 1884, pp. 209–240. However Kublai Khan, a farsighted and inventive figure, was already a spectacular pioneer in this field.
J. Popper, Die technischen Fortschritte nach ihrer ästhetischen und kulturellen Bedeutung, Leipzig 1888, pp. 59f.
A programme for this is given by J. Popper in his book Das Recht zu leben und die Pflicht zu sterben, Leipzig 1878. His goals are close to the original social democratic ones, but differ from them for the better in that according to him organisation should be confined to what is most important and essential, and for the rest the freedom of the individual should be preserved. In the contrary case slavery might well become more general and oppressive in a social democratic state than in a monarchy or oligarchy. In a complementary work (Fundament eines neuen Staatsrechts, 1905) Popper works out this leitmotiv: for secondary needs, the principle of majority; for fundamental ones, the principle of guaranteed individuality. In important points A. Menger, Neue Staatslehre, Jena, G. Fischer, 1902, agrees with him.
Jerusalem, Psychologie, p. 105. In more detail in Laura Bridgman, Vienna 1890, pp. 41 f.
For analogous examples from children’s language, see A, p. 250.
Of older writings on philosophy and language the following are particularly worth reading because of their originality: L. Geiger, Ursprung und Entwicklung der menschlichen Sprache und Vernunft, Stuttgart 1868; L. Noiré, Logos. Ursprung und Wesen der Begriffe, Leipzig 1885; Whitney, Leben und Wachstum der Sprache, Leipzig 1876. In many ways very stimulating is Fritz Mauthner, Beiträge zur Kritik der Sprache, Stuttgart, Cotta, 1901.
Tylor, Urgeschichte, pp. 17–104.
Since the invention of the phonograph a spoken passage may be reproduced at will, just like a written one. The phonographic archives of the Vienna Academy are an example of this. The idea of the phonograph is due to the phantasy of Cyrano de Bergerac (Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune, 1648 ).
Wuttke, Geschichte der Schrift, Leipzig 1872, I, p. 156, illustrations, p. 10, Table XIII. Other passages too are important for the matter here discussed.
Today the old philosophic problems of pasigraphy and an international language are once again under theoretical discussion and attempts are being made at a practical solution, particularly by the ‘Délégation pour l’adoption d’une langue auxiliaire internationale’. If this technical linguistic problem were solved it would amount to a most vital piece of cultural progress.
Tylor, Anthropologie, pp. 371 f.
We cannot here discuss the detailed history of development of the sciences. Cf. writings of more general content, such as Whewell, Geschichte der induktiven Wissenschaften, German ed. by v. Littrow, Stuttgart 1840. Especially instructive are works on special subjects, such as Cantor, Mathematische Beiträge zum Kulturleben der Völker, Halle 1863; Cantor, Geschichte der Mathematik, 1880.
Cf. M, W.
Cf. Haddon, Evolution in Art, London 1895; Wallaschek, Primitive Music; Tylor, Anthropologie, pp. 343 f.
Ibid., p. 353.
Lubbock, Die Entstehung der Zivilisation, Jena 1875; Die vorgeschichtliche Zeit, Jena 1874.
Natural science will have emerged as a by-product of the manual trades. Since the latter, like physical work in general, were despised in antiquity, and the slaves who worked and who observed nature, were strictly severed from their masters, who had leisure for amateurish speculation and often knew nature only from hearsay, it is in large measure clear why ancient science has a streak of naive and dreamlike vagueness. Only rarely does the urge for independent trial and experiment break through, in the case of geometers, astronomers, doctors and engineers, and every time it occasions important progress, as with Archytas of Tarentum or Archimedes of Syracuse.
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© 1976 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Mach, E., Hiebert, E.N. (1976). Development of Individuality in a Natural and Cultural Habitat. In: Knowledge and Error. Vienna Circle Collection, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1428-1_5
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