Wundt, Wilhelm Max, Lectures on human and animal psychology

(London : New York :  Swan Sonnenschein & Co. ; Macmillan & Co.,  1894.)

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LECTURE  XXIV

§ I. Mentality of the Higher Animals. § II. Animal Play.
§ III. Alleged Formations of Judgments and Concepts.
§ IV. General Significance of Association. § V. Man and
the Animals.

§1

THERE seems at first sight to be a very considerable differ¬
ence between the expressions of mentality in the higher
animals, more especially the more highly developed do¬
mestic animals, and the simple or complex associations which
we ascribed in the previous lecture to certain of the invertebrates,
such as spiders, ants, and other insects with very definite instincts.
The perpetual intercourse of the domestic animals with man
seems to bring them quite near to him on the mental side ; he
exertsa determining influence upon the contents of their ideas,
the direction of their associations, and their whole affective life.
The dog shares, the joys and sorrows of its master ; it reads
anger, happiness, or despondency in his face. The trained
poodle is made as happy as can be by its master's praises, and
shows every sign of pride when entrusted with certain duties, as
the carrying of a basket or a walking-stick. Now it is true
enough that all this points to a great diversity of feeling and a
considerable adaptability to the feelings of others. But the
emotions expressed never belong to the sphere of intellectual
feeling,—logical, zesthetical, etc. So that the only certain
inference from the actions in which the animal appears to
resemble man so closely is that it is endowed with a very active
associational mechanism.

There can be no doubt that the behaviour of our more highly
developed domestic animals indicates this activity of association.
As soon as you have taken your hat and stick, your dog knows
that you are going out, and shows by tokens of pleasure and

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