Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior

This book tries to clear away lots of "bedtime stories for adults" and to return the inquiry into the origins of behavior to a scientific basis. Science should have both an empirical basis, and predictive power. The nativists theories, as described by Blumberg, have neither characteristic -- they are based on over-interpretation and extrapolation from poorly designed experiments. I largely agree with the Publisher's Weekly review. The highlight of this book for me is the contrast the author draws between many well designed experiments whose goal is to gain a detailed mechanistic understanding of the roots of behavior, and the overreaching of the nativist school. The detailed description of experimental design is also one of the highlights of the author's previous book, Body Heat, that I also heartily endorse.

Excellent read on the origins of behavior. This well written treatise is chock full of great examples of how behavior can develop and also how easily we forget about parsimony. Maybe at first glance saying a "complex" behavior is innate or instinctual seems more simple but when you take the next step to understanding it you may as well start looking for Santa. Also, this book couldn't have come at a better time as the intelligent design craze is really taking off. Maybe this should become required reading for public schools too!

More and more, we read and hear about the claims made by some scientists who espouse that our behaviors are fully mature at birth. But as clearly discussed in this highly engaging and well-written book, these claims simply aren't true. The author gives many fine examples of the science that disputes these assertions, but I'll discuss just one. Nativists (people like Steven Pinker who think that animals do not develop "instincts" but are born with them) believe that newborn infants can imitate. For example: a baby sticks out his tongue after an adult does the same thing. The fact is, babies do this a lot, but not because they are born with the ability to imitate. Rather, the author explains, it has been proven that babies stick out their tongues for a much simpler reason: before a baby is developmentally able to reach for things with his hands, he explores the world with his tongue. Expositions such as this one fill this very insightful book. Replete with the inquiries and discoveries that have helped to illuminate the origins of development, this book is wonderful for readers who love to learn and get to the bottom of mysteries. Highly recommended!

This book is a must-read for all broadly interested in the origins of behavior and specifically for those interested the long-standing controversy of nature vs. nurture. In the book thoughtful arguments are made against the idea of inborn behaviors and each arguement is presented with examples that help to unravel what at face value seem to be prime examples of instincts. Nativists beware.

The debate over the origins of behavior, nature vs. nurture, genes vs. environment, has occupied the scientific community for many decades. In this book, Blumberg manages to navigate the rough waters of the debate by using well-thought-out examples to illustrate the roles of both genes and the environment at all stages of development. While this book may not provide a definitive definition of the word instinct, it will certainly allow the reader to understand the terms of the debate, give valuable background on why the word alone raises such passions on all sides, and, by the end the reader will understand why a simple explanation of instinct is impossible to give.