Review of Animal Drive and The Learning Process

Abstract

Reviews the book, Animal Drive and The Learning Process by E. B. Holt (1913). The author trenchantly attacks the absurdities of "subjectivism" and any form of the "psychological-parallelism." And in doing so he states that there are two ways of considering that which "moves an animal to action." One is that "chemical energy derived from food is the source of all activity;" the other is "the source of action is feeling, emotion, desire, or something of that kind." The author of course accepts the former way of thinking and puts all action on a physiological basis. The reviewer is not acquainted with all the physiological literature reported, yet one gets the impression that the source material quoted have been examined and presented through honest penetrating eyes. One is impressed with the painstaking, scholarship and sophistication of the author of this book. Only superior scholarship coupled with independence of thinking could enable one to cull out facts and weave into a consistent whole the physiological basis of all human behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)