religion.

Saturday 23 October 2010

tool making requires intelligence? well in that case say hey to the crow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtmLVP0HvDg&feature=related


in this video a caledonian crow is clearly shown to be using tools to achieve its goals. This clearly shows that the crow is using rationality to see that the wire needs to be bent so it can be used as a hook to get the hood up. 

what are you thoughts on the crows ability? 

to be able to rationalize is another big point in my view of personhood. although and im going to quote here 

"different needs cause different characteristics to develop. Our capacity for rational thought does not make us superior to nonhumans. I was pointing out that a cheetah is suited for its needs, just as humans are. The idea that the capacity for rational thought means an organism is superior to one that does not have the capacity for such is purely an anthropocentric view." 

i agree, different needs have caused each animal to develop different characteristics, physical or mental. In this case of the cheater, the cheater in my view is a magnificent hunter, one that is agile and extremely fast, but in light of all of this, it still isn't rational or self aware, it isn't able to look at its reflection and know that that is its self looking back at it. 
now i know that the cheater hasn't evolved to be self aware, but what im trying to establish is that, they are not intelligent. they do not have personhood. they are neither superior or inferior to us, but they lack personhood. 

as i said in the beginning of this blog, i am still trying to establish my views, they are crude and not yet fully formed, so any contribution will be a great help :) 

leave comments below :) you can now comment without an account on here so enjoy :) 


9 comments:

  1. mmmhhhhhh, interesting post and also hard to answer...

    I don't know, sir.

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  2. nice thinking! very hard to answer...

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  3. animals are much like humans...all differant and unique

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  4. Awareness is one of the key things that distinguishes a person from a non-person. I believe you become a person when you are aware of consequences, yourself and of others.

    Without this understanding of a higher level is impossible. No matter the amount of rationalisation, you'll never be able to attribute this to anything in the world.

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  5. I really like the blog man, following you so keep me updated!

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  6. thanks for all your comments, and anonymous i replied to that on one of my other posts, thanks for your in depth reply :)

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  7. Remember though a lot of animals rely on instinct, they are not necessarily intelligent. I do think some animals are intelligent though or just have a greater capacity than other animals to break down a situation. Saying that though is it really intelligence we are seeing though? from what the comment says they only used that one crow. it could be coincidence that it was a 'clever' crow. Just think that some humans have a nack for problem solving in certain things but it doesn't always make them intelligent depending on the task.

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  8. @Jafro
    Intelligence is a matter of perspective. Its entirely possible that some animals are more intelligent than us in different areas.
    We rely on our instincts just as much as animals do. Subconscious mind and all.

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