Saturday, April 5, 2008
Book II, Chapter X, 10. Brutes have memory
I like that Locke mention animals in this section..He says, This falculty of laying up and retaining the ideas that are brouhgt into the mind, several other animals seem to have to a great degree, as well as man... This is an example he gives- birds learining of tunes. The questions is how do we know what animals are capable of, mind wise...we dont know if they have there own way of thinking and how they use what they know..just like they dont know what we are thinking and we dont know what eachother is thinking as human beings....How does Locke know there degree of thinking is the same..he doesnt know the degree of other human beings thinking...however as humans we can test our minds and find our capabilities...but how can that be done with animals and we dont know how they think or there meanings for things....
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2 comments:
I can see where Locke is coming from where humans and animals both think and learn to do different things. It is difficult to know what an animal is thinking and almost impossible. But many animals have different behaviors that scientists can tell what they are going to do or what they are thinking of doing. It is also possible for scientists to measure animals brain waves and what sences they have.
I personally feel that there is no way to figure out what animals are thinking. There has been tests done to prove various questions. There is no way to say what animals are capable of.
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