Animal Cognition Writer & Philosopher PhD documenting my adventures, musings, and animal insights here. What’s the estimative got to do with it? Everything dear
Joined January 2024
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“If a #lion could #speak, we could not understand him.”
-Ludwig #Wittgenstein
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Can Animals Count?
It depends upon what you mean by number. Read the full chapter here:
brill.com/display/book/97890…
For more on whether animals know number I highly recommend reading this pre-print book chapter that distinguishes between different senses of number & goes over several studies about animal number cognition. It shows animals don’t know numbers as such or in the abstract sense.
academia.edu/144328100/Can_A…
One problem with this video: the researcher thinks Lemurs can cognize the abstract essence of what a number is. If you attend carefully to the video the evidence doesn’t show this. Instead it shows cognition of numbers in things, that is, sensible numbers. That’s not the same as number in abstraction which is to consider it apart from any sensible particulars.
Here of another case where philosophy could have helped more accurately explain the observations & the test results.
The finalized published chapter is here for this with institutional access or willing to purchase it or the entire work:
brill.com/display/book/97890…
One problem with this video: the researcher thinks Lemurs can cognize the abstract essence of what a number is. If you attend carefully to the video the evidence doesn’t show this. Instead it shows cognition of numbers in things, that is, sensible numbers. That’s not the same as number in abstraction which is to consider it apart from any sensible particulars.
Here of another case where philosophy could have helped more accurately explain the observations & the test results.
Lemurs cognize quantities:
pbs.org/video/can-lemurs-cou…
Except it looks like as a matter of empirical fact: Locke was wrong. Lemurs cognize quantities & animals sense numbers in a way.
Locke apparently didn’t test enough animals on this question.
pbs.org/video/can-lemurs-cou…
Correct answer is: no.
Why does Locke hold this?
He thinks animals with a large brood will not notice if one is missing.
He also thinks if you exchange a bunch of baby foxes for puppies the mother dog won’t notice.
See Part II of the Locke interview about animals here!!
Interestingly, Locke appears to agree with Descartes on the language issue.
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What did the famous English philosopher John Locke think about animal cognition ?
Catch the first interview here below!!!
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The logical entailment of PETA or the animal rights movement leads to this problem: whose life do you save?
Thomistic Animals retweeted
"We call him the dumb ox, but he'll still make such a mooing in his teaching that the whole world'll hear it."