Ethology





Ethology is the study of animal behaviour with a special attention to the
natural environment and physiological, evolutionary aspects. The term was
coined from the French Žthologie by the zoologist Isidore Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire, and first popularised in english by the American
Myrmecologist William Morton Wheeler in 1902.

An earlier, slightly different sense of the term, however, was proposed by
John Stuart Mill in his 1843 System of Logic. He recommended the development
of a new science, "ethology," whose purpose would be the explanation of
individual and national differences in character, on the basis of
associationistic psychology. This use of the word was never adopted, however.

According to one school of thought, nonhuman animals experience conscious
thought since the basic structure and functioning of neurons and synapses in
different animal brains is similar. There is no convincing evidence that
specific features of gross neuroanatomy are essential for conscious
thinking. In this view, different behaviours emerge from differences in
brain capacity and the manner in which the neural networks are hardwired by evolution.