Animal Life and Intelligence

Animal Life and Intelligence is an interesting volume that is almost equally divided between the two topics, as suggested by its title. In the earlier chapters, there are outstanding accounts of the essence of animal life and its connection to the environment; of the cycles of life; of reproduction and development; of variation and natural selection; of heredity and the origin of variations; and of organic evolution. The chapters thereafter deal with the senses and sense organs of animals; the nature of cognitive functions in man, serving as a ground for our judgment as to the nature and amount of animal intelligence; the mental operations of animals are afterward thoroughly and carefully discussed in three very suggestive chapters, and the final and very metaphysical chapter is on mental development. Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852 – 1936) was a British ethologist and psychologist. He is remembered for his theory of emergent evolution and for the experimental approach to animal psychology, now known as Morgan's Canon, a principle that played a major role in behaviorism. In this work, he has discussed interesting subjects with a fullness of knowledge and judicial impartiality worthy of all praise.