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List of contents
I. EXPLANATION AND CONFIRMATION Introduction 1. Theory and Practice in Naturalistic Studies of Behavior Prior to Ethology's Establishment as a Scientific Discipline, 2. The Study of Adaptation, 3. The Units of Behavior in Evolutionary Explanations, 4. Inference in Social Evolution Theory: A Case Study, 5. Natural History and the Superorganic in Studies of Tool Behavior, 11 . METHOD, ANALYSIS, AND CRITICAL EXPERIMENT Introduction 6 . Neural Positivism and the Localization of Function, 7. Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Animal Behavior, 8. Comparative Behavior and Phylogenetic Analyses: New Wine, Old Bottles, 9. How the Mismatch between the Experimental Design and the Intended Hypothesis Limits Confidence in Knowledge, as Illustrated by an Example from Bird-song Dialects, 1 o. The Influence of Models on the Interpretation of Vigilance, 11. Levels of Analysis and the Functional Significance of Helping Behavior, 1 2. Use of Body Mass and Sex Ratio to Interpret the Behavioral Ecology of Richardson's Ground Squirrels, II I. MORAL DIMENSIONS Introduction 1 3. Domestication, Exploitation, and Rights,1 4. Ethical Issues in Genetics: Cautionary Considerations, 1 5. On Moderation, 1 6 . Sympathy, Empathy, and Understanding Animal Feelings - and Feeling for Animals
About the author
Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. (Author)
Summary
The essays also address questions concerning the meaning and significance of consciousness; animal intelligence, awareness and emotions; behavioural plasticity, flexibility and constraints on understanding animal minds; and the structure of explanation in the study of behaviour.
