Lorenz’s Human Ethology Between the Search for a Human Singularity and the Prophecy of an Apocalypse

Abstract

The aim of this research is an attempt to understand the changes in Konrad Lorenz’s texts, regarding his concept of human singularity and how it contrasts with other species. These texts, which have been published since the 1950s, usually differ greatly from those published by other ethologists, who seek universal patterns of human behaviour in emotional reactions and signal stimuli. However, Lorenz’s studies of the human species partially follow this description: its instinctive actions and innate triggering mechanisms are maladjusted, and the species has already lost its natural sociology and ecology. To evaluate the transformations of his Human Ethology we will employ some of Lorenz’s texts (Lorenz 1950/1971, 1969 and 1974). In this work, our historical discussion of these propositions will reference studies on governmentality (Foucault, 2004a e 2004b; Rose, 1998).