Читать книгу The Behavior of Animals - Группа авторов - Страница 13

The scientific study of animal behavior is often called ethology, a term used first by the nineteenth century French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, but then used with its modern meaning by the American zoologist Wheeler (1902). Ethology is derived from the Greek ethos, meaning “character.” The word “ethics” is also derived from the same Greek word, which makes sense, because ethics is basically about how humans ought to behave. Unfortunately, the word “ethology” is also often confused with the word “ethnology” (the study of human peoples), with which it has nothing in common. In fact, the very word processor with which we are writing this chapter keeps prompting us to replace “ethology” by “ethnology”! For whatever the reason, the word “ethology” is not used as much as it used to be, although there is still an active animal behavior journal bearing this name. Instead of “ethology,” many authors now use the words “animal behavior” or “behavioral biology” when they refer to the scientific study of animal behavior.