Abstract
AbstractThe science of animal behaviour is still evolving from its pre-scientific past. It rests on exact description, but is an experimental discipline. Techniques of experiment and mathematical procedures are well advanced; but, in Wittgenstein's phrase, 'conceptual confusion' remains. The confusion is especially prominent in the analysis of social behaviour. It is worst when generalizations are extended to man.In this review I discuss, in an ethological framework, some of the principles of method that lie behind concepts such as those of altruism, crowding, dominance, stress and territory; and I try to replace the illusion that ethology can solve the problems that face us with a statement of what ethology can actually do. I hope in this way to contribute to the use of exact and rational methods in the sciences of behaviour.Social ethology analyses the species-typical signals of animals, and can provide methods for studying human non-verbal communication. It has suggested useful ideas about human behavi...
Published Version
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