The Rational Animal: In Search of Complex Cognition in Non-Human Animals

Description

In this book, the major and at the same time most difficult questions of comparative cognition research - here called the sextet of animal intelligence - are presented using good examples, discussed in all their facets and finally answered with due caution. Starting with the question of human rationality, which is illuminated historically at the beginning and presented as a framework concept, the latest research is dealt with, which either revises preferred interpretation schemes or calls for new ones. It is particularly important to critically question hastily conceived categorisations, often derived from research on the human species and from everyday psychological notions, and to consider so-called animal irrationality, a.k.a. (mis)performance, from the perspective of species-specific, natural requirements. Why is it at all important to know whether animals can act rationally, intentionally or consciously? The answer is because it is of both theoretical and practical relevance. Theoretical relevance is twofold: because it is good in itself to understand animals better, but this knowledge is then also of great importance for assessing ourselves. This brings up the practical relevance: we are not only surrounded by animals, we live with animals, we live from animals. Yet we see ourselves as separate from them in important ways. Consciousness, language and rationality are essential characteristics with which we justify our human uniqueness and thus our superiority and ultimately our right to dominate and use animals in many ways. If an animal can feel pain, we feel obliged to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain on it. But yet we do not accord it the special inherent value and dignity associated with consciousness and rationality. This has far-reaching consequences for human action and the coexistence of humans and animals. Preface Contents Chapter 1: Historical Outline of the Basic Questions of Animal Cognition To Err Is Human? Can Animals Think? Conceptualisation Categorisation and Concept Formation Thoughts, Judgements, and the Search for Truth Shared Intentionality Images in Your Head Chapter 2: Can Animals Be Rational? Logic and Reasoning Act Willingly Self-Control Executive Functions A Sextet of Animal Intelligence Chapter 3: Tool Use Specificum Humanum What Is Tool Use? Examples of Tool Users in the Wild Categorisations of Tool Uses Tool Use and Tool Manufacture Creative Tool Users Chimpanzees Other Apes Long-Tailed Macaques Capuchin Monkeys New Caledonian Crows Hawaiian Crows Woodpecker Finches Is Tool Use a Sign of Intelligence? Tool Use as Cognitive Specialisation? Creative or Flexible Tool Use Two Routes to the Tool User Insight Cognitive Ingredients of Creative Tool Use Information Collection Information Recombination Object Manipulation Tool Use as Intentional Action Chapter 4: Causal Understanding What Is Causal Understanding? The Trap-Tube Task The String-Pulling Task The Towel Test When Will the Platform Collapse? Aesop’s Crow and the Pitcher Hook Tinkering Goffin’s Cockatoo: A New Model Species for Technical Intelligence Chapter 5: Looking into the Future Store Tools Two Steps Ahead Chains of Action Soon or Later? The Power of Imagination Planned Actions Semantic Prospecting Chapter 6: Episodic Memory What, When, and Where? Imitation and Episodic-Like Memory Is There Nonlinguistic Evidence of Journeys into the Past? Perishable Food How Much Time Has Passed? Only Familiarity? Chapter 7: Metacognition Communicating One’s Own Uncertainty Get Out in Time Betting on Your Own Knowledge It Is Better to Look Than to Guess Metacognition as Interpersonal Cognition Control Chapter 8: Mind Reading Sally and Anne Psychologists and Simulators Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind? I Know What You Know Does She Know or Is She Guessing? Machiavellian Mind Readers Feathered Mind Readers Raven Intelligence Chimpanzee Chess The Goggles Experiment Anticipatory Looking Helping Clever Terriers Chapter 9: Do Animals Have Language? Language as a Tool for Communication Language as a Medium of Thought A Bag of Tricks Language, Narrow and Wide Language Training in the Laboratory Analysis of Animal Communication in the Wild Alarm Calls Primate Linguistics Social Communication Adapting Communication to the Knowledge of the Audience Non-human Versus Human Language The Evolution of Human Language Chapter 10: Do Animals Have Consciousness? What Kind of Consciousness? From Core to Extended Consciousness Criteria for the Presence of Awareness The Neurobiology of Consciousness Functional Criteria for Consciousness Degrees of Consciousness The Self in the Mirror: Bodily Self-Awareness On the Awareness of Being Conscious Chapter 11: How Do Animals Think?: A Seven-Point Summary Can We Attribute Mind to Animals? How Is It Different from That of Humans? How Can We Determine the Mental Abilities of Animals? Can the Human (Anthropomorphic) Perspective Be Abandoned or Its (Epistemological) Limitations Overcome? How Can Different Non-human Animal Species Be Compared? What Are the Benefits of Cognitive Skills? How Common Are Higher Levels of Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom? Epilogue: What Can We Learn from This? References Person Index Subject Index Taxonomic Index