The congener; A neglected area in the study of behaviour

Abstract

This paper seeks a deeper understanding of the congener as a factor in animal and human behaviour. It does so, not by concentrating on analyses of stimulus exchanges--largely specific to the species--by which a congener is recognized, but on the more general questions of why a notion of congener exists at all and why it plays such an extraordinary important role in animal and human behaviour. Three separate approaches, by way of anthropomorphic psychology, a paraphysical energy model and the physical theory of the implicate order, lead to the recognition of a certain inseparability of 'self' and 'congener'; and to an interpretation of the content of the notion of congener and of the behaviour in relation to it, in terms of the fundamental concept of energy and the even more fundamental one of order.

Awakenings in triplicate: in ontogeny, after immobility, and to the presence of a congener. Comments on Ilan Golani’s concept of the mobility gradient

“…Along with the notion of behavioral expansion came the concept of congener, because "another animal" is the natural stimulus eliciting the former (Kortmulder, 1974(Kortmulder, , 1986. "Congener, " rather than "conspecific" because, particularly in play and to some extent in tederheid, other species may be accepted partners.…”

“…(As to tederheid: animals of many species readily let themselves be stroked at least by humans). The cognitive image of "who is a congener" thus seems to widen and narrow with the expansion and narrowing of visible behavior (Kortmulder, 1986(Kortmulder, ). 10.3389/fnbeh.2024 Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 05 frontiersin.org…”