• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The New Anthropomorphism

The New Anthropomorphism

Hardcover

Series: Problems in the Behavioural Sciences

PhilosophyGeneral PsychologyZoology

ISBN10: 0521410649
ISBN13: 9780521410649
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: Jul 16 1992
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.63 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
John Kennedy's thesis is that anthropomorphism is not necessarily dead, but is lurking under different disguises. In fact, it still affects research, but is often unintended and therefore it goes unrecognized. He provides ample documentary evidence of the way researchers unconsciously slip into anthropomorphism. The book contains nineteen essays on behavioral concepts that have seldom been identified as anthropomorphic, but in fact bear that connotation and lead to mistakes. Some of these, such as search images in birds and the learning of grammatical language by apes, have been seen as errors after a time. A greater number, such as efference copy, goal-directedness, cognition, and suffering in animals, are still current though not yet regarded as erroneous. We can hardly hope to cure ourselves altogether of thinking anthropomorphically, and it can be very useful as a metaphor. The final chapter outlines things we can do to minimize the damage anthropomorphism does to the casual analysis of animal behavior.

1 different editions

Also available

Also in

Philosophy