“In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher 
psychological processes, if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of 
processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and 
development.” C. Loyd Morgan

    Right, so it becomes a matter of interpretation of what you are 
observing, doesn’t it?  There are always lots of ways to explain things.  
Since all behavior exists on a continuum from simple to complex, any point 
along that continuum can be instructive of any other point.  In other words 
bee behavior, which is not exactly simple, can provide some measure of 
insight into behavior in higher forms and visa versa, especially when 
examined at the physiological level.   As a whole the psychology of Human 
behavior may be orders of magnitude more complex than that of the 
next “highest” animal, but there are mechanisms in operation at the lowest 
level that are just as complex, or just as simple if you will, as similar 
mechanisms in humans.  These mechanisms (please don’t ask me to name 
any ;>)) are building blocks of more complex behavior mechanisms and the 
more complex they are the more potential they hold for analogies to aspects 
of human behavior.  
    There is an assumption in some circles that the behavioral 
characteristics of humans, their psychological and intellectual capacities; 
those things which distinguish them from all other organisms, somehow make 
them superior to all other forms in some God-like manner. I read the news 
and I am not convinced.  We are all made of the same stuff.  So lets not 
kid ourselves by assuming in a dogmatic fashion, what “disciples” of Morgan 
would have us assume, that there is no human analogous psychological 
phenomenon going on in the rest of the animal world.  That would be an 
interpretation which, if taken as undisputable fact, could become dogma in 
the wrong hands, and might lead to something like hubris in science.

Steve Noble (Fuzzy peach)  

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