CHAPTER XC 

 MAN'S CONQUEST OF NATURE 



520. Learning from experience. We have seen that one of 

 the peculiarities of the human organism that gives it advan- 

 tages over others is the fact that it can learn from experience. 

 There are, indeed, other animals that also learn from experi- 

 ence. Experiments made with turtles, cats, crabs, earthworms, 

 starfish, even Paramecium, and many other animals show that 

 to a certain extent these organisms can profit from experience. 



521. Learning from others. When human beings gather into 

 groups, each one learns not only from his own experience but 

 from the experiences of others. Experiments made with many 

 different animals showed that the monkeys were the only ones 

 that made any attempt to imitate what others were doing ; and 

 they were the only ones, therefore, who could possibly learn 

 from the experiences of others. 



Among human beings there is the possibility of learning 

 from others, not only through imitation but also through direct 

 instruction. And in the fact that human beings organize for 

 various activities (as hunting, fishing, fighting, migrating, etc.), 

 and cooperate, there is a further possibility of learning, one 

 that other animals do not have in anything like the same degree. 



522. Preserving experience. If a wasp should learn a new 

 trick for catching caterpillars, and use it successfully in gather- 

 ing food for her offspring, her acquired wisdom would die with 

 her, for the eggs which she lays do not hatch out until after 

 she is dead. Among human beings, however, we have an 

 extreme example of the possibility of carrying on the results 

 of experience from generation to generation. Although it is 

 impossible to transmit through heredity the modifications that 



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