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In Defense of Instinct Concepts

Dhein, Kelle (2024) In Defense of Instinct Concepts. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In the twentieth century, the distinction between instinct and learning motivated international debates that reshaped the disciplinary landscape of animal behavior studies. When the dust settled, a new consensus emerged: the development of behavioral traits involves complex interactions between organisms, genetic inheritance, and experience with the environment. This insight has spurred some philosophers and scientists to eschew instinct versus learning dichotomies—and instinct concepts in particular—on epistemic grounds. In this paper, I reassess influential twentieth-century arguments against instinct concepts and instinct versus learning dichotomies to show that these arguments have limited scope. Then, I use historical case studies to demonstrate the combinatorial flexibility of instinct and learning concepts. Although instinct and learning are often framed as mutually exclusive opposites, scientists continue to combine them in causal physiological accounts of behavior. I conclude by suggesting that instinct concepts help scientists achieve their epistemic aims because of the way they facilitate abductive inferences.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Dhein, Kellekdheinbe@asu.edu0000-0002-1009-0615
Keywords: Instinct versus learning · Nature versus nurture · Nativism versus empiricism · Innate versus acquired · Animal behavior
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology
Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Learning and Memory
Depositing User: Kelle Dhein
Date Deposited: 03 Dec 2024 13:10
Last Modified: 03 Dec 2024 13:10
Item ID: 24339
DOI or Unique Handle: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70847-3_12
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology
Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Learning and Memory
Date: 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24339

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