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avoid anthropomorphism

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e.g. are dolphins happy and content when free to jump in the water?

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this is a bad question, since we have no way of knowing if dolphins are happy in the same way as humans are happy

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we can, however, measure things like heart rate

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cows are known to have higher heart rates when around certain other cows

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whether or not this means they are happy around those cows or when not around those cows cannot be determined and asking questions of this sort may be worthwhile but moves you out of the area of science

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example: dog and possum

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possum on leash, leash around stake, can't get to food, so: possum walks around stake and gets to food

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dog on leash, leash around stake, dog can't get food, but he doesn't move back around stake and doesn't get the food

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we ask: why is possum more intelligent than the dog?

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bad question

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question is value-laden

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it makes an assumption about an animal being able to solve a certain problem and its intelligence

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projects human characteristics onto the animals, e.g. it assumes that animals are intelligent in the same way humans are

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asking anthropomorphic questions often obscures other questions that may be more rewarding

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the better question is simply: why can the possum solve the problem and the dog cannot?

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asking questions in this way, they can be tested experimentally, e.g. we could do the same experiment with tree kangaroos and regular kangaroos

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example: spider

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sexually cannibalistic behavior of some spiders in which the female kills the male after intercourse

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interpreting this as revengeful is anthropomorphic

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when it makes sense to compare human characteristics with animal characteristics

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children who are exposed to highly traumatic events are often disturbed psychologically and abnormal neurological processes later in life

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disruptions of the familial bonding process upsets regulation in the developing brain

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elephants that are traumatized as babies, e.g. seeing their parents killed and being taken to a new environment at a young age, are pre-disposed to violence

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in this case, it is not unreasonable to generalize what we know about humans to other species

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you can have different answers to the same questions

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Julian Huxley (1887-1975)

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English evolutionary biologist

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proponent of natural selection

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founding member of the World Wildlife Fund

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first Director of UNESCO

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his father was Thomas Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog"

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Thomas Huxley's famous 1860 debate with Samuel Wilberforce was a key moment in the wider acceptance of evolution

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Tinbergen's four questions

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question: During mating season, male bower birds creates an intricate nest for the female, decorated with small flowers or even bits of colored plastic. Bowers have nothing to do with raising chicks, however, they are used only for he courting process. Male birds maintain their bowers all year long, but why do they increase building activity on their bowers in the springtime?

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1. causation

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daylight increase may trigger changes in hormones

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2. adaptive value

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in order to attract females

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3. evolution

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became more and more complex as more intricate as those who could build more intricate bowers were favored to reproduce

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4. development

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males learn from their parents

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ultimate questions

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evolutionary, historical explanations

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"why" questions

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proximate questions

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explanations which focus on immediate causes such as underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms

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"how" questions

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example: why do spiny stick insects sway when they hang from branches of trees

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it mimics winds moving the branch

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do the animals detect wind pressure?

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what is the survival value of this

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determine whether moving animals are more difficult to see

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Sometimes people suggest that a particular explanation represents an alternative view when it, in fact, answers a different type of question, i.e. an explanation to a proximate question doesn't provide an alternative to an explanation of an ultimate question, i.e. how and why questions