Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INSTRUCTION TO BINDER
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, TO THE SIXTH EDITION
- HISTORICAL SKETCH
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION
- CHAPTER II VARIATION UNDER NATURE
- CHAPTER III STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
- CHAPTER IV NATURAL SELECTION; OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
- CHAPTER V LAWS OF VARIATION
- CHAPTER VI DIFFICULTIES OF THE THEORY
- CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION
- CHAPTER VIII INSTINCT
- CHAPTER IX HYBRIDISM
- CHAPTER X ON THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD
- CHAPTER XI ON THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC BEINGS
- CHAPTER XII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
- CHAPTER XIII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION—continued
- CHAPTER XIV MUTUAL AFFINITIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS: MORPHOLOGY: EMBRYOLOGY: RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
- CHAPTER XV RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION
- GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER VIII - INSTINCT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INSTRUCTION TO BINDER
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, TO THE SIXTH EDITION
- HISTORICAL SKETCH
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION
- CHAPTER II VARIATION UNDER NATURE
- CHAPTER III STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
- CHAPTER IV NATURAL SELECTION; OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
- CHAPTER V LAWS OF VARIATION
- CHAPTER VI DIFFICULTIES OF THE THEORY
- CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION
- CHAPTER VIII INSTINCT
- CHAPTER IX HYBRIDISM
- CHAPTER X ON THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD
- CHAPTER XI ON THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC BEINGS
- CHAPTER XII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
- CHAPTER XIII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION—continued
- CHAPTER XIV MUTUAL AFFINITIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS: MORPHOLOGY: EMBRYOLOGY: RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
- CHAPTER XV RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION
- GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. I may here premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself. We are concerned only with the diversities of instinct and of the other mental faculties in animals of the same class.
I will not attempt any definition of instinct. It would be easy to show that several distinct mental actions are commonly embraced by this term; but every one understands what is meant, when it is said that instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate and to lay her eggs in other birds' nests. An action, which we ourselves require experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a very young one, without experience, and when performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. But I could show that none of these characters are universal. A little dose of judgment or reason, as Pierre Huber expresses it, often comes into play, even with animals low in the scale of nature.
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- Information
- The Origin of SpeciesBy Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, pp. 205 - 234Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1859