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Do nonhuman animals think

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Does dualism entail that other animals do not have minds? ... Wishing that I owned a vintage ... Kohler's monkeys [cf. Inside the Animal Mind] ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Do nonhuman animals think


1
Do non-human animals think?
  • From Descartes to Cognitive Science

2
Dualism and animals
  • Does dualism entail that other animals do not
    have minds?
  • Descartes is a dualist.
  • Descartes believes that other animals dont
    think.
  • But a dualist could disagree.
  • Why?

3
Consciousness vs. Thought
  • What exactly does Descartes deny to animals?
  • Does Descartes deny animal consciousness?
  • Distinguish different aspects of mind
  • Consciousness
  • Thought
  • Theory of mind
  • Self-consciousness

4
Consciousness
  • Simple awareness
  • Feeling pain
  • Seeing color
  • Hearing sounds
  • Fear
  • Pleasure

5
Thought
  • Examples
  • Believing that snow is white.
  • Wishing that I owned a vintage DAngelico New
    Yorker.
  • Expecting that my friend will return in a
    fortnight.
  • Thought is propositional.

6
Theory of mind
  • Examples
  • Predicting that your will be jealous (or not) if
    I get a DAngelico New Yorker.
  • Appreciating that if we meet and you say Hi and
    I say Hi that it would be inappropriate for you
    to say Hi again.
  • Requires special concepts, the ability to think
    about other minds.

7
Self-consciousness
  • Awareness of my thoughts as mine.
  • Ability to think things without saying them.
  • Awareness of the causes of my mental states.

8
Does Descartes deny animal consciousness?
  • what changes must take place in the brain to
    produce waking, sleep, and dreams how light,
    sounds, odors, tastes, heat, and all the other
    qualities of external objects impress it with
    different ideas by means of the senses how
    hunger, thirst, and the other internal affections
    can likewise impress upon it divers ideas what
    must be understood by the common sense (sensus
    communis) in which these ideas are received, by
    the memory which retains them, by the fantasy
    which can change them in various ways, and out of
    them compose new ideas, and which, by the same
    means, distributing the animal spirits through
    the muscles, can cause the members of such a body
    to move in as many different ways, and in a
    manner as suited, whether to the objects that are
    presented to its senses or to its internal
    affections, as can take place in our own case
    apart from the guidance of the will.

9
Animals have consciousness
  • Animals sense
  • Animals have memory
  • Animals move suitably in response to stimuli from
    their environment.
  • This is all mechanical. quote
  • We could, in principle, build machines that
    completely replicate other animals.

10
Do (other) animals think?
  • Could we build a machine that completely
    replicates a man?
  • Descartes Two tests show that the answer is
    negative
  • It couldnt use language.
  • It couldnt act from knowledge but only from
    the disposition of their organs. quote
  • Therefore, humans have something (thought) that
    animals dont have.

11
In support of Descartes claim
  • Descartes doesnt deny that animals could appear
    to use some language.
  • But do any animals besides us have the use of
    language as a universal tool, fitted to all
    circumstances?
  • Even idiots but not the smartest animal.

12
Objection
  • Montaigne Other animals do stuff we cant do.
  • Descartes Granted. But that doesnt show that
    they think.
  • Nature acts in them according to the disposition
    of their organs.

13
Descartes tests again
  • Appear to be empirical tests
  • Could we build an automaton that has language?
  • Is there language in other animals?

14
Another Route
  • Real language competence is a sufficient
    condition for thinking, but is it a necessary
    condition?
  • How about problem solving?
  • Kohlers monkeys cf. Inside the Animal Mind
  • Categorization?
  • Alex the parrot categorizes objects

15
All or nothing or a matter of degree?
  • Is thinking something you have or dont have, or
    could it be a matter of degree?
  • Maybe language is a manifestation of a more
    fundamental cognitive phenomenon.

16
Animals and kids
  • When do you get a mind?
  • Are you born with it?
  • Cognitive Development The field that studies how
    children acquire language, a theory of mind, and
    self-consciousness.
  • Use that field to study animal minds.

17
Do primates have a theory of mind?
  • Can a primate believe that another primate sees,
    believes, knows or wants?
  • What evidence would support such a claim?
  • Heyes reviews some of the experimental evidence.

18
Potential evidence
  • Imitation
  • Self-recognition
  • Social relationships
  • Role-taking
  • Deception
  • Perspective-taking

19
Key Question
  • Must we attribute a theory of mind to the primate
    to explain these behaviors?
  • How should we design experiments to distinguish
    between a mentalistic and non-mentalistic
    explanation?

20
Example Imitation
  • Chimps do some imitation see also Inside the
    Animal Mind
  • But not conclusive evidence
  • Even if apes ape doesnt follow that they need
    a theory of mind to do so.

21
Self-concept
  • Chimps marked with a red spot on their heads.
  • Then exposed to a mirror.
  • Do they use the mirror to inspect their red spot?
  • They touch their head at the red spot more when
    they are in front of the mirror.
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