CHAPTER XIII 



INTELLIGENCE AND THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS 



i. WE have already seen that instinct and intelligence, 

 though opposed in idea, are so far from being incompatible 

 in fact, that it is within the sphere of instinct that intelli- 

 gence first arises. The first function of intelligence is to 

 define the proximate ends of instinct, and thereby to render 

 experience available in the choice or revision of means. 

 Hence, the higher the intelligence, the greater the 

 complexity of which instincts are capable, and the more 

 readily are they adaptable to meet a novel situation, and 

 the individuality of changing circumstances. We have, 

 unfortunately, no means of precisely measuring the com- 

 plexity of which pure instinct is capable. But about the 

 higher instincts, two things are noteworthy. 



1 i ) It is in those Orders or Classes where we find most 

 evidence of intelligence, that instincts chiefly arise which 

 are adaptable to very complex conditions. It is here, for 

 example, that we find attention to the young, the rudiments 

 of social life, and of mutual help ; the provision of a 

 temporary or permanent home. 



(2) We have direct evidence that operations of which 

 the basis is instinctive are modified in detail according to 

 experience of results. It is to be inferred that instinct, at 

 least among the higher animals, is not wholly blind. 

 There must be some consciousness of the purpose, where, 

 as the result of experience, means are taken to avoid its 

 frustration. Thus the foundation of mutual help is no 

 doubt instinctive. The cry of the young excites the 

 mother to come to it, or to hunt for food for it, as the 



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