C. Lloyd Morgan

C. Lloyd Morgan (Conwy Lloyd Morgan) (February 6, 1852 - March 6, 1936) was a British psychologist. He is best remembered for the experimental approach to animal psychology, now known as "Morgan's canon."

Life

Conwy Lloyd Morgan was born on February 6, 1852 in London. During his childhood years he became interested in philosophy as a result of conversations with the local rector who encouraged him to read the works of Bishop Charles Berkeley. He attended a local grammar school and then decided to attend the Royal School of Mines in London with the idea of becoming an mining engineer, at the suggestion of his father who was a lawyer with interests in several mining companies.

A chance meeting with Thomas Huxley led to an invitation to study biology with him for a year, which Morgan did after several months of travel abroad. This encouraged him to pursue an academic career and his first position was as a lecturer in Physical Science, English Literature, and Constitutional History at the Diocesan College at Rondebosch near Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1884, he joined the staff of the then University College, Bristol as Professor of Geology and Zoology, and carried out some research of local interest in those fields. However, he soon became interested in the field he called "mental evolution," the borderland between intelligence and instinct. In 1899, he became the first Fellow of the Royal Society in the field of psychology, and in 1901 became the college's first Professor of Psychology and Ethics.

As well as his scientific work, Lloyd Morgan was active in academic administration. He became Principal of the University College, Bristol, in 1891 and consequently played a central role in the campaign to secure it full university status. In 1909, when, with the award of a Royal Charter, the college became the University of Bristol, he was appointed as its first Vice-Chancellor, an office he held for a year.

In 1911, Morgan returned to his teaching position, which he held until his retirement in 1919. Following retirement, Morgan delivered a series of Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews, in which he develop the concept of emergent evolution.

Morgan served as president of the Aristotelian Society from 1926 to 1927. He died in Hastings on March 6, 1936 at the age of 84.

Work

As a specialized form of Occam's razor, Morgan's canon played a critical role in the growth of behaviorism in twentieth century academic psychology. The canon states In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher mental faculty, if it can be interpreted as the exercise of one which stands lower in the psychological scale. For example, an entity should only be considered conscious if there is no other explanation for its behavior. As the study of animal cognition has become popular, a disciplined use of Lloyd Morgan's canon has become important.

The development of Morgan's canon derived partly from his careful observations of behavior, which provided convincing examples of cases where behavior that seemed to imply higher mental processes could in fact be explained by simple trial and error learning (what we would now call operant conditioning). An example is the skilful way in which his terrier Tony opened the garden gate, easily understood as an insightful act by someone seeing the final behavior. Lloyd Morgan, however, had watched and recorded the series of approximations by which the dog had gradually learned the response, and could demonstrate that no insight was required to explain it.

Coined by 19th-century British psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan, Morgan's Canon (more usually called Lloyd Morgan's Canon, or occasionally Morgan's Canon of Interpretation) remains a fundamental precept of comparative (animal) psychology.

In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one that stands lower in the psychological scale.

In other words we should only consider behavior as, for example, rational, purposive or affectionate if there is no other explanation in terms of the behaviors of more primitive life-forms to which we do not attribute those faculties.

Morgan was reacting to excessively anthropomorphic interpretation of animal behavior, specifically the anecdotal approach of George Romanes. The prestige of Lloyd Morgan's canon partly derives from the fact that Lloyd Morgan was himself an acute observer of behavior, and provided convincing examples of cases where behavior that apparently involved higher mental processes could in fact be explained by simple trial and error learning (what we would now call operant conditioning). A famous example is the skillful way in which his terrier Tony opened the garden gate, easily taken by someone seeing the final behavior as an insightful act; Lloyd Morgan, however, had watched and recorded the series of approximations by which the dog had gradually learned the response, and could demonstrate that no insight was required to explain it.

Legacy

As the study of animal cognition has become popular, a disciplined use of Lloyd Morgan's canon has become more and more important. D.A. Dewsbury calls Morgan's Canon "perhaps, the most quoted statement in the history of comparative psychology" and Frans de Waal echoes in The Ape and the Sushi Master : "perhaps the most quoted statement in all of psychology." It has played a critical role in the growth of the prestige of behaviorism in twentieth century academic psychology.

Lloyd Morgan's Canon is usually thought of as a special case of Occam's razor by virtue of its presupposition of simplicity that lower level interpretations are more parsimonious than higher level ones. See also the use of Morgan's canon in Biology at Occam's Razor.

Major Works

• Morgan, C. Lloyd. An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. Adamant Media Corporation, 2000 (original 1894). ISBN 978-1421227757
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. Animal Behaviour. BiblioLife, 2009 (original 1900). ISBN 978-1117406879
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. The Interpretation Of Nature. Nabu Press, 2010 (original 1906). ISBN 978-1172140787
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. Eugenics and Environment. University of Michigan Library, 1919.
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. Emergent Evolution. Chandra Chakravarti Press, 2008 (original 1923). ISBN 1443720674 online version Retrieved March 8, 2011.
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. Mind at the Crossways. Maclachan Bell Press, 2007 (original 1929). ISBN 978-1406737578
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. The Animal Mind. Edward Arnold, 1930.
• Morgan, C. Lloyd. Autobiography of Lloyd Morgan Retrieved March 8, 2011. First published in History of Psychology in Autobiography, Volume II edited by Carl Murchison, 237-264. Clark University Press, 1932.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Boring, Edwin G. History of Experimental Psychology. New York, NY: Appleton Century Crofts, 1970. ISBN 978-0390109880
• Dewsbury, Donald A. Comparative Psychology in the Twentieth Century. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984. ISBN 978-0879331085
• Epstein, R. "The principle of parsimony and some applications in psychology." Journal of Mind and Behavior 5 (1984): 119-130.
• Murchison, Carl (ed.). A History of Psychology in Autobiography, Volume II. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press, 1932.

External links

• Autobiography of Lloyd Morgan
• Conwy Lloyd Morgan Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol

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