Anthropomorphizing Animals is Underated
Link is to an article discussing the latest science on animal cognition. Each study that comes out shows animals are smarter than commonly supposed and for all the world just like people.
Yet some scientists still caution against anthropomorphizing animals. Um, why exactly? Research seems to be converging on the conclusion that this may be the best way to understand animals after all.
The conventional logic goes like this: to ascribe human qualities to animals is to assume, without foundation, that they are just like us.
The new logic goes like this: Since the foundation now exists to assume animals are just like us, anthropomorphizing animals is justified and necessary to understand them.
Not to mention, as Allen just reminded me, all the really very salient very recent examples of animal intelligence, like the dog with the vocabulary and the crow making tools.
And there was just a chimpanzee escape from some chimp holding facility in California (I think) that sounds for all the world like a prison break, losing one of their number while overwhelming a couple of armed guards, with an unknown number of chimps still at large as of this writing. What if they know sign language and are coordinating their activities? How long before a situation like this results in something like a list of demands?
Yet some scientists still caution against anthropomorphizing animals. Um, why exactly? Research seems to be converging on the conclusion that this may be the best way to understand animals after all.
The conventional logic goes like this: to ascribe human qualities to animals is to assume, without foundation, that they are just like us.
The new logic goes like this: Since the foundation now exists to assume animals are just like us, anthropomorphizing animals is justified and necessary to understand them.
Not to mention, as Allen just reminded me, all the really very salient very recent examples of animal intelligence, like the dog with the vocabulary and the crow making tools.
And there was just a chimpanzee escape from some chimp holding facility in California (I think) that sounds for all the world like a prison break, losing one of their number while overwhelming a couple of armed guards, with an unknown number of chimps still at large as of this writing. What if they know sign language and are coordinating their activities? How long before a situation like this results in something like a list of demands?
posted by Jim Richardson at 8:34 PM
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