Wolfgang Wickler

Wolfgang Wickler, ( born November 18, 1931 in Berlin ) is a German zoologist, behavioral researcher and publicist. He was appointed in 1974 as Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and served as director of the Ethological department at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen at Starnberg. Even after his retirement (1999) he was the Institute in Seewiesen closely linked and provided, inter alia, for the smooth transition to the then newly formed Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.

Career

After graduation (1951 ) he studied biology and then went on a scholarship at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, where Konrad Lorenz and Erich von Holst his teachers were. After a dissertation on the behavior of demersal fish, he was a research assistant from 1960 in Seewiesen and finally completed his habilitation in 1969 at the University of Munich. There he received in 1976 and the appointment as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Science; early as 1970 he had been awarded at the Faculty of Catholic Theology an apprenticeship participation for Biological foundations of moral conceptions of man.

Winder specialty was the reconstruction of the phylogeny of animal communities as well as the analysis of communication in animals. Among other things, he examined the " dialects " of birds, as early as 1968 but was also a stand- up to the year 2002 alone in the German language book on mimicry. Our research focus of his department at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology and comprised studies on the social behavior of spiders and grasshoppers, on food acquisition, reproduction and pair formation in shrimp as well as more philosophical embossed publications on " biological reasoning " in the context of ethical issues (including 1971 " the biology of the ten Commandments ").

Much attention in a public place in 1981, written by Winder together with Uta Seibt, socio- biological- embossed book, " The principle of self-interest " as well as the 1983 (again with Uta Seibt authored ) book " male - female. A law of nature and its consequences "; the focus of both books was the evolution of behavior; them was " How should the behavior of living things be such if the theory of evolution is true? " Pre Hold each that cultural influences on people's behavior while not denied in its publications, but would at best observed on the edge: the key question was formulated. Is highly unusual that several of his books decades were made available again after their first publication by revisions.

In November 1997, the Senate of the Max Planck Society decided, with the retirement of Prof. Wolfgang Wickler on 30 November 1999, the closure of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology. The ornithological research has since continued in a "Max Planck Institute for Ornithology " ( Erling - Andechs, Radolfzell and Seewiesen ).

Wolfgang Wickler already belonged to the late 1980s, the most active critics of the instinct theory of his mentor, Konrad Lorenz.

Wolfgang Wickler is married to Agnes Oehm since 1956, has four grown children and is also active as an organist.

Publications (selection)

  • Wickler, W.: mimicry. Imitation, and deception in nature, Munich 1968.
  • Wickler, W.: Are we sinners: Natural laws of marriage. With an introduction by Konrad Lorenz, Munich 1969.
  • Wickler, W.: Responses of behavioral research Munich 1970.
  • Wickler, W.: Behavior and Environment, Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1972.
  • Wickler, W. and Seibt, U. ( ed.): Comparative Ethology ( Reader). Hamburg 1973.
  • Wickler, W.: phylogeny and ritualization. On the origin of animal and human behavior, Munich 1975.
  • Wickler, W.: The biology of the Ten Commandments. Why nature is not a model for us, Munich 1991 ( new edition ).
  • Wickler, W. and Seibt, U.: The principle of self-interest. On the Evolution of social behavior, Munich / Zurich 1991 ( new edition ).
  • Wickler, W. and Seibt, U.: Male Female. A law of nature and its consequences, Heidelberg / Berlin 1998 ( new edition ).
  • Wickler, W. and Seibt, U.: Calendar worm and pearls post. Biologists decipher unwritten messages, Heidelberg / Berlin, 1998.
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