This book is a contribution to the history of ethology-not a definitive history, but the personal view of a major figure in that story. It is all the more welcome because such a grand theme as ethology calls for a range of perspectives. One reason is the overarching scope of the subject. Two great questions about life that constitute much of biology are "How does it work (structure and function)?" and "How did it get that way (evolu tion and ontogeny)?" Ethology addresses the antecedent of "it. " Of what are we trying to explain the mechanism and development? Surely behav ior, in all its...

This book is a contribution to the history of ethology-not a definitive history, but the personal view of a major figure in that story. It is all the more welcome because such a grand theme as ethology calls for a range of perspectives. One reason is the overarching scope of the subject. Two great questions about life that constitute much of biology are "How does it work (structure and function)?" and "How did it get that way (evolu tion and ontogeny)?" Ethology addresses the antecedent of "it. " Of what are we trying to explain the mechanism and development? Surely behav ior, in all its...

Die Einzigartigkeit des Menschen wird oft auch von solchen nicht voll ge wUrdigt, die emport gegen die Ergebnisse der Abstammungslehre protestieren und es durchaus nicht wahr haben wollen, daB der Mensch irgendwelche Struktureigenschaften seiner tierischen Ahnen unverandert in sich tragt. Eine neue Eigenschaft oder Leistung eines organischen Systems entsteht in der Stammesgeschichte fast immer dadurch, daB zwei oder mehrere, bisher un abhangig voneinander funktionierende Untersysteme zu einer Einheit hoherer Ebene integriert werden. Diese besitzt dann unvorhergesehene, vorher schlechterdings...