One the question of whether other animals do or do not "reason", one might take an evolutionary approach. What makes us human (perhaps) is that we've abstracted reason from the reasons embedded in our environment. Other animals, presumably, do not do this. But even the most basic responses organisms make, say, …
One the question of whether other animals do or do not "reason", one might take an evolutionary approach. What makes us human (perhaps) is that we've abstracted reason from the reasons embedded in our environment. Other animals, presumably, do not do this. But even the most basic responses organisms make, say, aversive or attractive chemotaxis depend on reasons that keep these organisms alive and reproducing.
Or put another way, humans have exapted from the reasons that keep us and the rest of life alive to "reasoning".
Brian, I try not to be dogmatic when it comes to the abilities of other animals. It’s an open empirical question. Either way, it’s hard to deny that reason plays a very special role in human life.
I was trying to be non-dogmatic here. That was why such qualifiers as "presumably" though we might not want to base presumption that a property does not exist on a lack of evidence for a property.
Ooops. Forgot to thank you.
One the question of whether other animals do or do not "reason", one might take an evolutionary approach. What makes us human (perhaps) is that we've abstracted reason from the reasons embedded in our environment. Other animals, presumably, do not do this. But even the most basic responses organisms make, say, aversive or attractive chemotaxis depend on reasons that keep these organisms alive and reproducing.
Or put another way, humans have exapted from the reasons that keep us and the rest of life alive to "reasoning".
Brian, I try not to be dogmatic when it comes to the abilities of other animals. It’s an open empirical question. Either way, it’s hard to deny that reason plays a very special role in human life.
I was trying to be non-dogmatic here. That was why such qualifiers as "presumably" though we might not want to base presumption that a property does not exist on a lack of evidence for a property.
I’m in complete agreement.