A DISCUSSION ON INSTINCT 



MARGARET F. WASHBURN 

 Vassar College 



At a joint meeting of the Aristotelian Society, the British 

 Psychological Society, and the Mind Association, held in Lon- 

 don in July, 1 910, a symposium was held on the subject of the 

 relations of instinct and intelligence. The papers presented 

 were afterguards published in the British Journal of Psychology. 



The discussion was opened with a paper by Professor C. S. 

 Myers, '^ in which he took the position that the terms instinct 

 and intelligence refer rather to different aspects of behavior 

 than to different types of behavior. " So far," he said, " as 

 instinctive behavior can be regarded from the standpoint of the 

 individual experience of the organism, it appears, however im- 

 perfectly, as intelligent — characterized by finalism. So far as 

 intelligent behavior can be regarded from the standpoint of 

 observing the conduct of other organisms, it appears, however 

 imperfectly, as instinctive — characterized by mechanism. Two 

 assumptions," he continued, " are commonly made with regard 

 to instinct: first, that the organism is unaware of the end to be 

 accomplished, and second, that the behavior is unalterable and 

 perfect from the outset. As regards the first assumption, instinc- 

 tive action differs from refiex action not only in being accom- 

 panied by a feeling of activity, but also by a further accom- 

 paniment, that of vague awareness of results. This position of 

 Myers' needs to be made as clear as possible by the full statement 

 of his own words. " To my mind it is certain that, on the occa- 

 sion of the chick's first peck, or the duckling's first swim, the 

 bird is dimly, of course very dimly, conscious of the way in which 

 it is about to act. I believe this because no organism can ever 

 execute a new movement which does not involve other move- 

 ments that have been performed previously. A completely new 

 movement is as impossible as a completely new thought. When 

 a chick first attempts to peck, many of the muscles then called 

 into action must have been contracted before. Thus the feeling 

 of activity arising on the occasion of the chick's first peck is 

 not altogether a new one. It is related, as each of our own 



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