Umwelt

What he proposed was revolutionary: anyone who wants to understand the life of an animal must begin by considering what he called their umwelt OOM-velt: their subjective or “self-world.” ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

What he proposed was revolutionary: anyone who wants to understand the life of an animal must begin by considering what he called their umwelt (OOM-velt): their subjectiveor "self-world." ❋ Unknown (2009)

On top of that each individual creates his own personal umwelt, full of objects with special meaning to him. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

We now have the tools to take a more measured look at their behavior: with their umwelt and their perceptual and cognitive abilities in mind. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

But by suiting up animals with critter-cams we are mostly getting an idea of their vantage on the world, not their entire umwelt. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

Since my guests may be less keen on the dog umwelt, though, I advise visitors to proffer a hand undoubtedly fragrant, or kneel and let their head or trunk be sniffed instead. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

We can glimpse this by “acting into” the umwelt of another animal, trying to embody the animal—mindful of the constraints our sensory system places on our ability to truly do so. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

In the dog umwelt beds have no special functional tone. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

But it is crucial that we try to imagine how he sees the world—that we replace anthropomorphisms with umwelt. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

A Seeing Eye dog must be taught the umwelt of the human: the objects that are important to the blind person, not those of interest to the dog. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

To understand the dog umwelt, then, we must think of objects, people, emotions—even times of day—as having distinctive odors. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

But the trouble with anecdotes is that one does not have the full story of what happened, since the teller, with his own umwelt and particular perception, is necessarily restricted in what he sees. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

That kind of introspective exercise only works when paired with an understanding of how profound the difference in umwelt is between us and another animal. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

It is for this reason that they require—and deserve—more attention to their umwelt, to their experience, to their point of view. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

In point of fact, their tactile umwelt is almost certainly different than ours. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

It is from her that the insights of the book come, from her that evocations spring, from her that the scenes and images and umwelt emerge. ❋ ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ (2009)

They're so [delusional] they're [living] in their own Cyber Umwelt. ❋ HowieP (2023)