Editing Konrad Lorenz (section)

== Contributions and legacy ==
[[File:Lorenz and Tinbergen1.jpg|thumb|With [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]] (left), 1978]]

Lorenz has been called 'The father of ethology', by Niko Tinbergen.<ref name=Tinbergen1963>{{cite journal| title=On aims and methods of ethology |last=Tinbergen |first=N. | journal=Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie | year=1963 | volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=410–433 |doi=10.1111/j.1439-0310.1963.tb01161.x }}</ref> Perhaps Lorenz's most important contribution to ethology was his idea that behavior patterns can be studied as anatomical organs.<ref name=Lorenz1937>{{cite journal| title=On the formation of the concept of instinct | first=Konrad |last=Lorenz |journal=Die Naturwissenschaften | year=1937 | volume= 25 | issue= 19 |pages=289–300 | doi= 10.1007/BF01492648|bibcode = 1937NW.....25..289L | s2cid=41134631 }}</ref>  This concept forms the foundation of ethological research.<ref name=Tinbergen1963 /><ref name=Dawkins1982>{{cite book |year=1982 |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |title=The Extended Phenotype |url=https://archive.org/details/extendedphenotyp0000dawk_o9u2 |url-access=registration |place=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/extendedphenotyp0000dawk_o9u2/page/2 2] |isbn=978-0-19-286088-0 }}</ref> However, [[Richard Dawkins]] called Lorenz a "'good of the species' man",<ref name=Dawkins1976>{{cite book| last=Dawkins |first=Richard | title=The Selfish Gene| edition=1st| year=1976| publisher=Oxford University Press| isbn=978-0-19-857519-1| pages=9, 72|title-link=The Selfish Gene }}</ref> stating that the idea of [[group selection]] was "so deeply ingrained"<ref name=Dawkins1976/> in Lorenz's thinking that he "evidently did not realize that his statements contravened [[Neo-Darwinism|orthodox Darwinian theory]]."<ref name=Dawkins1976/>

Together with [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]], Lorenz developed the idea of an [[innate releasing mechanism]] to explain instinctive behaviors ([[fixed action pattern]]s). They experimented with "[[Supernormal stimulus|supernormal stimuli]]" such as giant eggs or dummy bird beaks which they found could release the fixed action patterns more powerfully than the natural objects for which the behaviors were adapted. Influenced by the ideas of [[William McDougall (psychologist)|William McDougall]], Lorenz developed this into a "psychohydraulic" model of the [[motivation]] of behavior, which tended towards [[group selection]]ist ideas, which were influential in the 1960s. Another of his contributions to ethology  is his work on [[imprinting (psychology)|imprinting]]. His influence on a younger generation of [[ethologists]]; and his popular works, were important in bringing ethology to the attention of the general public.

Lorenz claimed that there was widespread contempt for the descriptive sciences. He attributed this to the denial of perception as the source of all scientific knowledge: "a denial that has been elevated to the status of religion."<ref name=Lorenz1979>{{cite book |year=1979 |last=Lorenz |first=Konrad |title=The Year of the Greylag Goose |place=London |publisher=[[Eyre Methuen]] |page=6}}</ref> He wrote that in comparative behavioral research, "it is necessary to describe various patterns of movement, record them, and above all, render them unmistakably recognizable."<ref name=Lorenz1979p7>Lorenz (1979), p. 7.</ref>

There are three research institutions named after Lorenz in Austria: the  [[Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research|Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI)]] was housed in Lorenz' family mansion at Altenberg before moving to [[Klosterneuburg]] in 2013; the [[Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle]] (KLF) at his former field station in Grünau; and the [[Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology]], an external research facility of the [[University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna]].

=== Vision of the challenges facing humanity ===
[[File:Lorenz and Tinbergen2.jpg|thumb|With Nikolaas Tinbergen (right), 1978]]

Lorenz predicted the relationship between market economics and the threat of ecological catastrophe. In his 1973 book, ''[[Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins]]'', Lorenz addresses the following paradox:
<blockquote>All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favor humanity's destruction<ref>{{cite book |title=Gli otto peccati capitali della nostra civiltà |trans-title=Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins |publisher=[[Adelphi Edizioni]] |location=Milano |year=1974 |page=26 }} The citation is translated from the Italian version of the book.</ref></blockquote>

Lorenz adopts an ecological model to attempt to grasp the mechanisms behind this contradiction. Thus "all species... are adapted to their environment... including not only inorganic components... but all the other living beings that inhabit the locality." p31.

Fundamental to Lorenz's theory of ecology is the function of [[negative feedback]] mechanisms, which, in hierarchical fashion, dampen impulses that occur beneath a certain threshold. The thresholds themselves are the product of the interaction of contrasting mechanisms. Thus pain and pleasure act as checks on each other:

<blockquote>To gain a desired prey, a dog or wolf will do things that, in other contexts, they would shy away from: run through thorn bushes, jump into cold water and expose themselves to risks which would normally frighten them. All these inhibitory mechanisms... act as a counterweight to the effects of learning mechanisms... The organism cannot allow itself to pay a price which is not worth paying. p53.</blockquote>

In nature, these mechanisms tend towards a 'stable state' among the living beings of an ecology:

<blockquote>A closer examination shows that these beings... not only do not damage each other, but often constitute a community of interests. It is obvious that the predator is strongly interested in the survival of that species, animal or vegetable, which constitutes its prey. ... It is not uncommon that the prey species derives specific benefits from its interaction with the predator species... pp31–33.</blockquote>

Lorenz states that humanity is the one species not bound by these mechanisms, being the only one that has defined its own environment:

<blockquote>[The pace of human ecology] is determined by the progress of man's technology (p35)... human ecology (economy) is governed by mechanisms of POSITIVE feedback, defined  as a mechanism which tends to encourage behavior rather than to attenuate it (p43). Positive feedback always involves the danger of an 'avalanche' effect... One particular kind of positive feedback occurs when individuals OF THE SAME SPECIES enter into competition among themselves... For many animal species, environmental factors keep... intraspecies selection from [leading to] disaster... But there is no force which exercises this type of healthy regulatory effect on humanity's cultural development; unfortunately for itself, humanity has learned to overcome  all those environmental forces which are external to itself p44.</blockquote>

Regarding aggression in human beings, Lorenz states:
<blockquote>Let us imagine that an absolutely unbiased investigator on another planet, perhaps on Mars, is examining human behavior on earth, with the aid of a telescope whose magnification is too small to enable him to discern individuals and follow their separate behavior, but large enough for him to observe occurrences such as migrations of peoples, wars, and similar great historical events. He would never gain the impression that human behavior was dictated by intelligence, still less by responsible morality. If we suppose our extraneous observer to be a being of pure reason, devoid of instincts himself and unaware of the way in which all instincts in general and aggression in particular can miscarry, he would be at a complete loss how to explain history at all. The ever-recurrent phenomena of history do not have reasonable causes. It is a mere commonplace to say that they are caused by what common parlance so aptly terms "human nature." Unreasoning and unreasonable human nature causes two nations to compete, though no economic necessity compels them to do so; it induces two political parties or religions with amazingly similar programs of salvation to fight each other bitterly, and it impels an Alexander or a Napoleon to sacrifice millions of lives in his attempt to unite the world under his scepter. We have been taught to regard some of the persons who have committed these and similar absurdities with respect, even as "great" men, we are wont to yield to the political wisdom of those in charge, and we are all so accustomed to these phenomena that most of us fail to realize how abjectly stupid and undesirable the historical mass behavior of humanity actually is<ref>LORENZ, Konrad. ''On Aggression''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. Translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson. Originally published in Austria under the title DAS SOGENANNTE BÖSE. Zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression. Viena: Dr. G. Borotha-Schoeler Verlag, 1963, p. 263.</ref></blockquote>

Lorenz does not see human independence from natural ecological processes as necessarily bad. He states that:<blockquote>A completely new [ecology] which corresponds in every way to [humanity's] desires... could, theoretically, prove as durable as that which would have existed without his intervention (36).</blockquote>

However, the principle of competition, typical of Western societies, destroys any chance of this:
<blockquote>The competition between human beings destroys with cold and diabolic brutality... Under the pressure of this competitive fury we have not only forgotten what is useful to humanity as a whole, but even that which is good and advantageous to the individual. [...] One asks, which is more damaging to modern humanity: the thirst for money or consuming haste... in either case, fear plays a very important role: the fear of being overtaken by one's competitors,  the fear of becoming poor, the fear of making wrong decisions or the fear of not being up to snuff... (pp. 45–47)</blockquote>

=== Philosophical speculations ===
In his 1973 book ''[[Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge]]'', Lorenz considers the old philosophical question of whether our senses correctly inform us about the world as it is, or provide us only with an illusion. His answer comes from [[evolutionary biology]]. Only traits that help us survive and reproduce are transmitted. If our senses gave us wrong information about our environment, we would soon be extinct. Therefore, we can be sure that our senses give us correct information, for otherwise we would not be here to be deceived.