Naturalists' Portrayals of Animal Life: Engaging the Verstehen Approach

This paper is an investigation into naturalists' understanding of animal life, focusing specifically on the turn-of-the-century naturalists George and Elizabeth Peckham, and Jean Henri Fabre. It argues that these authors apply what social scientists call the `Verstehen' method to the study of animals, in that they approach animal action as evidencing a subjective, experiential perspective. The presuppositions and forms of evidencing and reasoning of the naturalist genre are analyzed, and their effects on the portrayal of animals are elucidated, by looking closely at the particular authors. The paper ends by examining the connection between the form of knowledge of animal life embedded in naturalist studies, and the question of anthropomorphism.