{"id":40168,"date":"2019-11-04T21:08:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T21:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=40168"},"modified":"2020-04-09T20:15:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T20:15:35","slug":"a-foray-into-the-worlds-of-animals-and-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=40168","title":{"rendered":"A foray into the worlds of animals and humans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/>\n<p>by Jakob von Uexk\u00fcll<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The perceptive signs of a group of perception cells come together outside the perception organ, indeed outside the animal&#8217;s body, in units that become qualities of the object that lie outside the animal subject. All our human sensations, which represent our specific perception signs, join together to form the qualities of the external things which serve us as perception marks for our actions. &#8211; p.48<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, too, it is possible to group the isolated effect signs into units that, in the form of self-contained motor impulses or rhythmically arranged melodies of impulses, produce effects in the muscles subject to them. At this, the effectors activated by the muscles impress their &#8220;effect mark&#8221; [&#8220;Wirkmal&#8221;] on the objects that lie outside the subject. &#8211; p.48<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since all qualities of an object are connected with each other -through the structure of the object, the qualities affected by the effect mark must exert their influence through the object upon the qualities that are carriers of the perception mark and have a transformative effect on the perception mark itself. One can best sum this up this way: <strong>the effect mark extinguishes the perception mark.<\/strong> &#8211; p.49<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All animal subjects, from the simplest to the most complex, are inserted into their environments to the same degree of perfection. <strong>The simple animal has a simple environment; the multiform animal has an environment just as richly articulated as it is.<\/strong> &#8211; p.50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time, which frames all events, seemed to us to be\nthe only objectively consistent factor, compared to the variegated changes of\nits contents, but now we see that the subject controls the time of its\nenvironment. &#8211; p.52<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Environment spaces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It is beyond all doubt that such a house-door\ncompass is a necessary aid for all animals, whether the house door is a nesting\nor a spawning place. The establishment of the house door through optical\nfeatures in visual space is in most cases not adequate, since it must be found\neven if it has changed its appearance. &#8211; p.57<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There results from this that, besides the perception sign for the sense of touch,<strong> we also possess a perception sign for the sense of place, which we shall call local signs.<\/strong> Transferred outward, each local sign delivers a place in tactile space. The areas of our skin that produce the same local sign in us when touched change extraordinarily in size according to the meaning that the part of the skin concerned has for touching. In feeling out [an object], places connect themselves with directional steps, and both serve the process of image-formation. &#8211; p.60<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tactile space plays a very prominent role in some animals. Rats and cats are completely unhindered in their movements even when they have lost the sense of sight\u2014as long as they have their vibrissae [whiskers]. All nocturnal animals and all animals living in caves live predominantly in tactile space, which represents a melding of places and directional steps. &#8211; p.61<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In tactile space, the objects&#8217; growing smaller does not take place. And that is the point at which visual and tactile space come into competition.<\/strong> &#8211; p.61<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The farthest plane<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In contracting the lens muscles, directional\nsigns appear for the direction back to front. As the relaxing muscles of the\nelastic lens are stretched, there appear directional signs that give the\ndirection from front to back. If the muscles are completely relaxed, the eye is\nfocused on the distance from ten meters to infinity. Within a radius of ten\nmeters, the things in our environment are known to us through this muscular\nmovement in terms of near and far. Outside this radius, there is originally\nonly an enlargement or shrinking of objects. The infant&#8217;s visual space ends\nhere with an all-encompassing farthest plane. Only bit by bit do we learn to\npush the farthest plane ever farther with the help of distance signs, until the\nadult&#8217;s visual space ends at a distance of six to eight kilometers and the\nhorizon begins. \u2013 p.66<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must therefore imagine <strong>all the animals<\/strong> that animate Nature around us, be they beetles, butterflies, gnats, or dragonflies who populate a meadow, as <strong>having a soap bubble around them<\/strong>, closed on all sides, which closes off their visual space and <strong>in which everything visible for the subject is also enclosed.<\/strong> Each bubble shelters other places, and in each are also found the directional planes of effective space, which give a solid scaffolding to space. &#8211; p.69<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we still want to cling to the fiction of an\nall-encompassing world-space, that is only because we can get along with each\nother more easily with the help of this conventional fable. \u2013 p.70<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Perception time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The question arises as to whether there are\nanimals whose perception time has shorter or longer moments than ours, and in\nwhose environments the motion processes occur more quickly or more slowly than\nthey do in ours. One can conclude with certainty that in the case of these\nfish, which live on fast-moving prey, all processes of motion appear more\nslowly in their environment, as in slow motion. \u2013 p.71<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can conclude from this that the perception time of the snail takes place at a speed of between three and four moments a second. This has as a result that all processes of motion take place much more quickly in the snail\u2019s environment than they do in our own. <strong>Even the snail\u2019s own movements do not seem slower to it than ours do to us. <\/strong>\u2013 p.72<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Simple environments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Space and time are of no immediate use to the subject. They only become meaningful when numerous perception marks (features) must be distinguished that would otherwise, without the spatio-temporal framework of the environment, coincide.<\/strong> \u2013 p.73<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an external organ harbors a complete reflex arc, one can properly call this a \u201creflex person.\u201d Sea urchins have a great number of such reflex persons, which perform their reflex tasks without central direction, each on its own. In order to make the contrast of animals of this structure to the higher animals more clear, I have coined the sentence, \u201cWhen a dog runs, the animal moves its legs. When a sea urchin runs, its legs move the animal.\u201d \u2013 p.76<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Form and movement as perception marks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if one wanted to assume for the environment of the sea urchin that all perception marks of the different reflex persons were provided with a local sign and that each one was therefore located at a different place, there would still be no possibility of connecting these places with each other. This environment would therefore have to lack <strong>the perception marks of form and movement<\/strong> that would <strong>require the joining together of several places<\/strong>, and this is indeed the case. \u2013 p.79<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Goal and plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps certain acts of the highest mammals will turn out to be goal-oriented actions which themselves are part of Nature\u2019s overall plan. With all other mammals, actions directed at a goal are not at all evident. \u2013 p.86<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Perception image and effect image<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These experiences are so valuable because they\nshow, already in the environments of the arthropods, that the perception image\nprovided by the sensory organs can be completed and altered by an \u201ceffect\nimage,\u201d which is dependent on the next action that takes place. \u2013 p.93<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it serves more than one kind of act, the same\nobject can have multiple effect images, which then give the same perception\nimage another effect tone. All animals that operate in a purely reflective\nmanner, such as the sea urchin, must be excluded from this category. But for\nother cases, as the hermit crab proves, the influence of mood is felt far down\nin the animal kingdom. \u2013 p.95<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We may say that an animal is able to distinguish as many objects as it can carry out actions in its environment.<\/strong> If it has only a few actions and a few effect images, its environment will then consist of few objects. The environment is thereby impoverished but is also all the more safe for it, for it is much easier to orient oneself among few objects than among numerous objects. With the number of actions available to an animal, the number of objects in its environment also increases as well in the individual life of any animal capable of accumulating experiences, for each new experience conditions a new attitude toward new impressions. By this means, perception images with new effect tones are created \u2013 p.96<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The familiar path<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all, one could say that <strong>the familiar path works like a streak of a more fluid medium in a more viscous one<\/strong>. \u2013 p.102<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Home and territory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With many animals, one would likely experience\nthat they defend their hunting ground against other animals of their own\nspecies and thereby make it into their territory. Any piece of land at all\nwould seem to be a political map for all species if one were to inscribe these\nterritorial areas into it, and this demarcation would be established through\nattack and defense. It would also turn out that, in many cases, no more free\nland at all is available, and one territory bumps up against another. \u2013 p.105<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The companion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As one can see, there is no single perception\nimage available for the companion. This is also not possible, since the role of\nthe companion is constantly changing. \u2013 p.111<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Search image and search tone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The search image wipes out the perception image. <\/strong>\u2013 p.113<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, <strong>we do not by any means always search for a certain object with a unique perception image, but far more often for an object that corresponds to a certain effect image<\/strong>. We do not look around for one particular chair, but for any kind of seating, i.e., for a thing that can be connected with a certain function [Leistung] tone. In this case, one cannot speak of a search image but rather, a search tone. \u2013 p.117<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Magical environments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Until now, environments had been the product of the perception signs that were awakened by external stimuli. But the search image, the tracing of the most familiar path, and the demarcation of territory already constitute exceptions to this rule, since they could be ascribed to no sort of external stimuli but represented free productions of the subject. <strong>These subjective productions had developed in connection to repeated personal experiences of the subject.<\/strong> \u2013 p.119<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And finally, the simple functional cycle teaches perception marks as well as effect marks are expressions of the subject and that the qualities of the objects included in the functional cycle can only be referred to as their vehicles. \u2013 p.125 <em><strong>Qualities are the ensemble of perception and effect marks?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The same subject as object in different environments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Each environment cuts out of the oak a certain\npiece, the characteristics of which are suited to form the perception-mark\ncarriers as well as the effect-mark carriers of their functional cycles. \u2013 p.130<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Forever unknowable behind all of the worlds it produces, the subject\u2014Nature\u2014conceals itself.<\/strong> \u2013 p.135<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Jakob von Uexk\u00fcll Introduction The perceptive signs of a group of perception cells come together outside the perception organ, indeed outside the animal&#8217;s body, in units that become qualities of the object that lie outside the animal subject. All our human sensations, which represent our specific perception signs, join together to form the qualities &#8230; <a title=\"A foray into the worlds of animals and humans\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/?p=40168\" aria-label=\"Read more about A foray into the worlds of animals and humans\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[621],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40168"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40309,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40168\/revisions\/40309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labri.fr\/perso\/barla\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}