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Philosophers have come up with a long string of traits which supposedly separate us from the animals, and they have a very poor track record: "Animals can't re
by waqf 10y ago
Philosophers have come up with a long string of traits which supposedly separate us from the animals, and they have a very poor track record:
"Animals can't recognize themselves in a mirror"
"Animals can't use tools"
"Ok, but animals can't make a plan to go get a tool and use it"
"Animals can't make tools" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo)
… and so it goes on. My impression at this point is that scientists are spending time patiently disproving these theories only because philosophers are so far off track in suggesting them to begin with.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dmurray 10y agoThe article deals with this, slightly tongue in cheek, as: > A funny pattern in animal behaviour seems to be that whatever difficult task you devise will eventually be done by pigeons A charitable interpretation is that scientifically, we ascribe the simplest possible behaviour (no conscious thought! No tool making! No tool using!) to animals and treat it as a notable result when these assumptions are proven wrong.