Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on October 25, 2016, 09:48:13 AM
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Fascinating, quite long, article on the study of the other animals' minds
http://tinyurl.com/zukzbsu
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Thanks for this, Nearly. I also found it a fascinating and expansive article which echoes some of my own views. It has been so easy to anthropomorphise and sentimentalise animal behaviour and even to see animals in an almost 'Wind in the Willows' like human form, that only in the last 20 to 30 years have accurate observations been made on a range of animal species leading, as the article makes clear,to the view that a variety of human tendencies do seem to be replicated in certain other animal species. I would suggest that technological advances have greatly helped in studying such animal behaviour(e.g. photography, sound recording). I particularly liked his reference to insects(whatever it feels like to be a bee, it feels something). Indeed this short article may interest you, which suggests that even fruit flies seem to be capable of 'free will' whatever that is, of course.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070516071806.htm
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Thanks for this, I think there is an added problem in terms of the assumptions we make about how human minds work. Anyway just in case you haven't read it, here is Nagel's hugely influential paper on What it is Like To Be a Bat
http://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/nagel-what-is-it-like-to-be-a-bat/
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V. interesting article. It reminds me of stuff written about crows recognizing humans, so that for example, men who regularly use guns are avoided, and also may be attacked. This also applies to people doing research projects, who catch young birds to tag them. They remember who you are!
http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/birds/archives/2013/crows-recognizing-faces.aspx
We were just messing about on the allotment, and we were watching the local cat, who likes to jump between compost bins, then I realized he was watching us!
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V. interesting article. It reminds me of stuff written about crows recognizing humans, so that for example, men who regularly use guns are avoided, and also may be attacked. This also applies to people doing research projects, who catch young birds to tag them. They remember who you are!
http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/birds/archives/2013/crows-recognizing-faces.aspx
We were just messing about on the allotment, and we were watching the local cat, who likes to jump between compost bins, then I realized he was watching us!
I wonder if that's true. A programme on the telly some years ago had the same person appear before a meerkat group. They recognised her but only by her clothes. Different clothes evoked different noise signal responses.
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I wonder if that's true. A programme on the telly some years ago had the same person appear before a meerkat group. They recognised her but only by her clothes. Different clothes evoked different noise signal responses.
Not sure that's a challenge to something about crows? Nor if it makes the difference about recognition.
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I wonder if that's true. A programme on the telly some years ago had the same person appear before a meerkat group. They recognised her but only by her clothes. Different clothes evoked different noise signal responses.
Well, the article has 'recognizing faces' in the title, and I think they sometimes used masks, which birds remembered years later.
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Well, the article has 'recognizing faces' in the title, and I think they sometimes used masks, which birds remembered years later.
Oh dear! I hope Hitchcock's film isn't based on a true story.