Tuesday, December 4, 2007

quit usin that reason, dog

so one of descartes things is about the soul and thinking and how animals dont actually think and dont reason so they have no soul. i am against that belief. i think animals do think and do use reason. they may not be able to construct grammatically correct sentences but there is thinking going on. i have two dogs and i have witnessed many instances in which reasoning and thinking takes place with them. i also know that almost every other pet owner i have ever known, share similar feelings about their pets intelligence. one instance in which i believe my dog demonstrated the use of reason was when he stole my uncles food from his plate during a meal. so we were sitting at our table eating a meal with my dog inside with us. he starts begging at the table but gets nothing. later he goes to the door to my backyard and starts scratching on the door and whimpering. my uncle got up to let him outside but as he opened the door my dog ran back to the table to my uncles seat and started to eat the food off his plate. Bruce (my dog) put a bunch of facts together and used them to get what he wanted. first of all he knows that he wont get food from the table as long as there are people there. second he knows that when he scratches on the door he will be let outside. in order to be let outside someone has to get up and open the door. and when someone gets up to open that door they will not be at the table guarding their food. i think this very simple yet effective plan demonstrates reasoning.

No comments: