No.554] ADAPTATION IN ANIMAL REACTIONS h9 



conversely, when we know more about adaptive reactions, 

 we shall be in a better position to attack the problem of 

 intelligence. Meanwhile, do not let us deceive ourselves 

 by confusing an argument in a circle with real progress. 

 In attempting a solution of the problem of adaptive reac- 

 tions, it is well to remember that enteleehies and other 

 like notions do not really bring us forward, for they are 

 at most soporifics to the mind that would naturally be 

 excited to research by precisely those questions that they 

 tend to obscure. 



In conclusion then I would maintain that the details 

 of animal reactions are in the main free from adaptive 

 restraint and that their diversity is dependent chiefly 

 upon the fluctuating momentary condition of the animal 

 body; further, that the main outlines of animal reactions 

 are adaptive, but that when we attempt to explain this 

 condition by assuming that it is dependent upon some- 

 thing like intelligence, we are arguing in a circle, for in- 

 telligence is merely our name for our own clref means of 

 adaptation. 



