What was Morgan’s canon, and why did he propose it?
The term Morgan canon was coined by the famous British psychologist Lloyd Morgan. It is one of the fundamental concepts in the animal and comparative psychology. According to the Morgan canon anthropomorphic approaches were fallacious in the behavior of the animals. Behaviors are always considered to be rational, affectionate and purposive only. Other explanation of the behaviors does not exist in the nature.
George Romanes anecdotal approach towards the interpretations of the animal behavior caused the Morgan to react because of, which he comes up with the concept of the Morgan’s canon. Morgan considered the behavior of the animals and the humans as purposive in nature and these purposes and the intentions are experienced by the mind. He believed that the survival is facilitated by the mental processes.
He strongly believed that the nonhuman behavior’s cognitive processes of the animals could be explained if they are related to the cognitive behavior of the humans. His primary purpose behind the Morgan’s canon was to elude the anthropocentrism, which means that the cognitive processes of the nonhuman behavior shares the resemblances with the human behavior. He proved that the nonhuman behaviors do not possesses the attributes of the human behavior.