Functional explanations of behavior

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 202 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0169-3867
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00127745

✦ Synopsis

SOCIOBIOLOGY IN THE AGE OF MELANCHOLY

which animal comparison is implausibly deployed. This, however, would extend Horan's analysis still further from the confines of her paper and, in the human case, it would necessitate discussion of the possibility of cultural transmission. For now, I simply wish to stress the helpfulness of her appreciation of comparison across species.

It is optimistic sociobiology that looks forward to the day when a Journal of Abnormal Animal Psychology will appear with an article entitled "This is an age of melancholy for gibbons, too". It is to Horan's credit that her ideas help to show why such a thesis, however funny on its face, may in the end have to be true if we are to learn from sociobiology not just about animals but humans too. Comparisons of humans and animals are fraught with a host of dangers. Yet scientific understanding may prosper in a human niche perhaps only through sociobiologically motivated animal comparisons. NOTES I I owe the reference to Endler as well as helpful discussion of the topics of this commentary to my colleague, Harold Kincaid.