heuristic value of animal intelligence

Heuristic value of animal intelligence

The common idea that non-human animals are guided mostly or

exclusively by `instinct' or conditioned reflexes has never convinced

me.

Granted, when we say `animals' we use an extremely broad concept, that

obviously comprises species hugely different from each other.

So, we must make distinctions here.

One of the reasons most usually given to deny that animal intelligence

can be comparable to ours is to point to the animals' not having

created a visible, tangible form of it, some products.

They have not constructed buildings or written poems.

But think of dolphins, for example.

We know that dolphins are highly intelligent. Yet, how could they

possibly have produced things like buildings or works of art?

The medium in which they live, primarily, and their lack of suitable

limbs, a consequence of it, would have made it impossible.

Dolphins make me think of the situation in which a very intelligent

human with physical disabilities might have been, possibly, in the

past, when technology was not there to help. Such a person's high

intellect may have never been discovered.

I think that the best position to take on the question of the

intelligence of other species is that we still do not know enough

about it, in a general sense, to make a judgement. The jury is still

out.

However, given this uncertainty, it is better to believe that,

generally speaking, non-human animals are much more intelligent and

self-aware than is commonly thought.

Why?

Because this work hypothesis has a higher heuristic value, that is it

is more fertile in terms of the scientific theories and discoveries

that it may lead to, than its alternative, the belief that there is

nothing there to discover.

In science, when two hypotheses compete, then, coeteris paribus, ie if

there is no clear reason to prefer one over the other, we should

choose the hypothesis with greater heuristic potential.

posted by Of Human and Non-Human Animals at 10:44 AM

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