Zoologist and ethologist, born in Vienna, Austria. He studied medicine at Vienna, and became professor at the Albertus University in Königsberg, headed the Institute of Comparative Ethology at Altenberg, established a comparative ethology department in the Max Planck Institute, and became its co-director in 1954. The founder of ethology, his studies have led to a deeper understanding of behaviour patterns in animals, notably imprinting in young birds. In his book On Aggression (1963) he argued that aggressive behaviour in humans may be modified or channelled, but in other animals it is purely survival motivated. King Solomon's Ring (1949) and Man Meets Dog (1950) also enjoyed wide popularity. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (November 7, 1903 in Vienna – February 27, 1989 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, animal psychologist, and ornithologist. Lorenz studied instinctive behavior in animals, especially in greylag geese and jackdaws.
At the request of his father, Lorenz began a premedical curriculum in 1922 at Columbia University, but he returned to Vienna in 1923 to continue his studies at the University of Vienna until 1928. The Max Planck Society established the Lorenz Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Buldern, Germany, in 1950.
In 1958, Lorenz transferred to the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen.
Lorenz retired from the Max Planck Institute in 1973 but continued to research and publish from Altenberg (his family home, near Vienna) and Grünau im Almtal in Austria.
Konrad Lorenz died on February 27, 1989, in Altenberg.
Lorenz was also a friend and student of renowned biologist Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (grandson of "Darwin's bulldog," Thomas Henry Huxley).
Politics
Lorenz joined the Nazi Party in 1938 and accepted a university chair under the Nazi regime. His publications during that time led in later years to allegations that his scientific work had been contaminated by Nazi sympathies: his published writing during the Nazi period included support for Nazi ideas of "racial hygiene" couched in pseudoscientific metaphors.
When accepting the Nobel Prize, he apologized for a 1940 publication that included Nazi views of science, saying that "many highly decent scientists hoped, like I did, for a short time for good from National Socialism, and many quickly turned away from it with the same horror as I." It seems highly likely that Lorenz's ideas about an inherited basis for behavior patterns were congenial to the Nazi authorities, but there is no evidence to suggest that his experimental work was either inspired or distorted by Nazi ideas.
During the final years of his life Lorenz supported the fledgling Austrian Green Party and in 1984 became the figurehead of the Konrad Lorenz Volksbegehren, a grass-roots movement that was formed to prevent the building of a power plant at the Danube near Hainburg an der Donau and thus the destruction of the yet untouched woodland surrounding the planned site.
Contributions and legacy
Together with Nikolaas Tinbergen, Lorenz developed the idea of an innate releasing mechanism to explain instinctive behaviors (fixed action patterns). Influenced by the ideas of William McDougall, Lorenz developed this into a "psychohydraulic" model of the motivation of behavior. Lorenz's writings about evolution are also now regarded as outdated, because he tended towards group selectionist ideas which have been heavily reinterpreted since the rise of sociobiology in the 1970s. Lorenz's most enduring contributions thus seem to be his empirical work, especially on imprinting;
There are three Konrad Lorenz Institutes in Austria;
The Example of his Methodology
Some would say that Lorenz' most significant contribution and legacy does not lie in any of his theories but in the good example he set with his methodology. All these cruel methods were once considered indispensable for animal studies, but Lorenz proved it was possible to win a Nobel Prize without using them.
Lorenz's Plan for Improving the Human Race
In his 1974 book, Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins, Konrad Lorenz addressed, among other things, the question of how the human race can be genetically improved. Lorenz concludes that the best hope for humanity is for all of us to imitate this wise rich young man, and to not look for good looks or wealth or distinguished lineage in our mates, but just for goodness and kindness.
His contribution to philosophy
In his 1973 book Behind the Mirror, 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.
Bekoff on Lorenz
"I remember meeting Lorenz at an ethological conference in Parma, Italy, and his passion and enthusiasm were incredibly contagious. Marc Bekoff, Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues" (2006), ISBN 1-59213-347-9
Works
Lorenz's best-known books are King Solomon's Ring and On Aggression, both written for a popular audience.
King Solomon's Ring (1952) Man Meets Dog (1954) Evolution and Modification of Behavior (1965) On Aggression (1966) Studies in Animal and Human Behavior, Volume I (1970) Studies in Animal and Human Behavior, Volume II (1971) Behind the Mirror (1973) Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins (1974) The Foundations of Ethology (1982) The Natural Science of the Human Species: An Introduction to Comparative Behavioral Research - The Russian Manuscript (1944-1948)(1995)
User Comments Add a comment…