MORGAN'S "INSTINCT AND EXPERIENCE" 1 



EDWIN G. BORING 



Cornell Univresity 



This book is an outgrowth of its writer's discussion of Instinct 

 and Intelligence in the Symposium held on those subjects in 

 London in 1910 (cf. British Journal of Psychology, 3, 1910, 219). 

 In the first half of the book the writer discusses the "nature 

 of instinctive behavior and its accompanying instinctive experi- 

 ence," and then, in the second half, he goes on to present a 

 dectrine of experience, which he regards as the necessary out- 

 come of his theory of instinct, and to which he brings support 

 fiom many quarters. The views of McDougall, Myers, Stout, 

 and Driesch aie repeatedly discussed throughout the volume, 

 while, in addition to other numerous references, an entire chapter 

 (Chap. VII) is devoted to Bergson's philosophy of instinct. The 

 whole presentation has a much more directly logical and episte- 

 mological, and a much less directly psychological, bearing, than 

 the title and the author's name would lead one to expect. 



The first two chapters are devoted to the discussion of instinct 

 and of instinctive behavior. The latter is said to be "congeni- 

 tally determined" and "practically serviceable on the occasion 

 of its first performance" (p. 22), whereas the former is instinc- 

 tive behavior together with the experience that is correlated 

 with it. Although "practically serviceable," instinct is not 

 perfect, and from the first it is subject to modification by intel- 

 ligence. Intelligence is distinct from instinct with regard to 

 meaning, for the successive phases of the instinctive process in 

 its first occurrence possess "primary meaning," inherent in 

 their mere succession, while upon repetition of the process there 

 is anticipation or "pre-perception" of the as yet unrealized 

 phases by revival of the first occurrence, — an anticipation which 

 supplies "secondary meaning" to the process and characterizes 

 it as intelligent. A vaguely conscious "pre-perception" may 

 accompany the first occurrence of the instinctive performance, 



. l The Macmillan Co., New York, 1912, pp. xvii +299. 



469 



