Question: What would a contemporary Aristotle think about the nature of animals?
Given that there has been quite the sum of research done on animal intelligence since the time of Aristotle, I can imagine that he may have to edit his view of the nature of animals. Since he lived in Greece in the fourth century, I don't think he had many animals to observe of test with puzzles and so on. And seeing as how he was a scientist foremost, I can assume that if he had access to chimpanzees he may have viewed things different, though we cannot be certain.
If he were alive today he could probably do research regarding the intelligence of apes and African grey parrots, for example. These animals are very intelligent and have puzzle solving abilities. They can learn new things and repeat them without having to be reminded. If Aristotle were to be alive during this era, I think he would have to greatly modify his view on what makes us different from non-human animals. Though I wonder if, for the sake of his argument, he would come up with something new for his philosophical views. I don't suppose he would have to do much, it's pretty apparent that parrots do not live as humans do, though there is something to be said about their intelligence.
No comments:
Post a Comment