46 Chapter IV. 



telligence from the territory of animal psychology and 

 do away with them as so many ' 'artificial barriers." 

 But they forget that in calling only those abilities of 

 animals "instinctive" which are transmissible as such, 

 and designating as "intelligent" those which have been 

 acquired or perfected by sense experience, modern ani- 

 mal psychology erects a new barrier between instinct 

 and intelligence. This is a purely artificial barrier, and 

 we had to reject it. It was erected upon false psycho- 

 logical foundations. But our distinction between in- 

 stinct and intelligence rests on firmer ground. It is 

 natural, not artificial, because it really coincides with the 

 barrier that actually exists between the two psychic 

 faculties of man and animal. An "opposition" that is 

 merely "vehement" in clamor, but not in argument, can 

 effect nothing against it. 



Nor does the statement refute us, that according to 

 our theory animals are exclusively guided by a "blind 

 instinct. 3 ' In the preceding chapter we have set forth 

 what we understand and must understand by instinct, 

 when we penetrate deeper into the essence and nature of 

 instinctive processes. Instinct is the hereditary adaptive 

 disposition of the power of sensile cognition and ap- 

 petite in the animal. It is blind only in as far as 

 instinctive actions are not governed by rational delibera- 

 tion ; it is not blind in as far as those actions are deter- 

 mined and influenced by the exterior and interior sense 

 perceptions of the animal. Those who try to impugn 

 our theory of instinct by attacking a "blind instinct" 

 fight against windmills. 



But, so they say, since the epoch-making work of 



