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Thank you, Philip. Not exactly what I wanted to know,
but an interesting viewpoint nonetheless.
I wonder how far back we would have to go to find some common
ground. For my part I am puzzled when people say, sometimes emphatically,
that birds - or other animals - cannot 'think', or 'reason',
or engage in 'intellectual cause and effect reasoning' (I am not sure what
'intellectual' adds). I am puzzled because I do not understand what they
are saying birds cannot do.
Perhaps we need different verbs, but I would have thought that
if a bird (let's stick with birds) was unable to associate an event or
action with an effect or result it would be unable to learn (ie gain
knowledge about) anything. To be guided by cause and
effect association, it is not necessary to understand the underlying
process. Many people turn on the television expecting to see 'Big Brother'
without understanding what electricity is or knowing that they have a
retina. Do you accept that birds can have a store, perhaps a limited
store, of memories (for want of a better word) of experiences that helps
guide how they behave?
Perhaps you mean that birds do not reason verbally or
mathematically, which is a different
issue.
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