„It was Plato who determined once and for all the cultural meaning of imitation, but this meaning is truncated, torn from the essential dimension of acquisitive behavior, which is also the dimension of conflict. If the behavior of certain higher animals, particularly the apes, seems to foreshadow human behavior, it does so almost exclusively, perhaps, because the role of acquisitive mimesis is so important in their behavior, although it is not as central as it is for the human being. If one ape observes another reach for an object, it is immediately tempted to imitate the gesture. It also happens that the animal visibly resists the temptation, and if the imitative gesture amuses us by reminding us of human beings, the failure to complete it, that is to say the repression of what already can be nearly defined as a desire, amuses us even more. It makes the animal a sort of brother to us by showing it subject to the same fundamental rule as humanity—that of preventing conflict, which the convergence of two or several avid hands toward one and the same object cannot help but provoke.“

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— René Girard, buch Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Quelle: Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978), p. 4.

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René Girard2

französischer Literaturwissenschaftler, Kulturanthropologe … 1923 - 2015

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„Being abroad makes you conscious of the whole imitative side of human behavior. The ape in man.“

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— Mary McCarthy American writer 1912 - 1989

Birds of Americs (1965), "Epistle from Mother Carey's Chicken"

„We are all human beings, the best of us a saint, but never a god. We can follow a saint's conduct and imitate his behavior, but it is unnecessary to worship him.“

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— Cheng Yen Taiwanese Buddhist nun 1937

Quelle: Master of Love and Mercy: Cheng Yen, p. 7

„In recent years, the studies of the effects of drugs on the behavior of animals have been playing an increasingly important role. Animal studies have been an advantage over studies with human subjects because better control of experimental variables and a possibility of using a wider range of the doses. It is also permissible to administer toxix compounds to animals. One can interfere surgically with various parts of the central nervous system while investigating the effects of the drugs. The whole field of comparative psychopharmacology has been recently reviewed“

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— Thaddus E. Weckowicz Canadian psychologist 1919 - 2000

Weckowicz (1967) "Chapter VI - Animal Studies of Hallucinogenic Drugs" in: Abram Hoffer, Humphry Osmond (1967) The hallucinogens. p. 555

„What is human behavior, except trying to prove that we're not animals?“

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— Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

Quelle: Microserfs

„Human beings hold two types of theories of action. There is the one that they espouse, which is usually expressed in the form of stated beliefs and values. Then there is the theory that they actually use; this can only be inferred from observing their actions, that is, their actual behavior.“

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— Chris Argyris American business theorist/Professor Emeritus/Harvard Business School/Thought Leader at Monitor Group 1923 - 2013

Quelle: On organizational learning (1999), p. 126: as cited in: Kenneth D. Shearer, ‎Robert Burgin (2001) The Readers' Advisor's Companion. p. 39

„Let us imagine that the aboriginal-original human specimen was one of two brother apes, A and B; they were alike in every respect; both were animal space-binders; but something strange happened to B; he became the first time-binder, a human. … He had thus a new faculty, he belonged to a new dimension; but, of course, he did not realize it; and because he had this new capacity he was able to analyze his brother "A"; he observed "A is my brother; he is an animal; but he is my brother; therefore, I AM AN ANIMAL." This fatal first conclusion, reached by false analogy, by neglecting a fact, has been the chief source of human woe for half a million years and it still survives. … He [then] said to himself, "If I am an animal there is also in me something higher, a spark of some thing supernatural."“

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— Alfred Korzybski Polish scientist and philosopher 1879 - 1950

Quelle: Manhood of Humanity (1921), p. 67. Chapter: What is Man?

„Economics is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.“

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— Lionel Robbins British economist 1898 - 1984

An Essay on the nature and significance of Economic Science (1932), Chapter I: The Subject Matter of Economics
Kontext: The economist studies the disposal of scarce means. He is interested in the way different degrees of scarcity of different goods give rise to different ratios of valuation between them, and he is interested in the way in which changes in conditions of scarcity, whether coming from changes in ends or changes in means—from the demand side or the supply side—affect these ratios. Economics is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.