By FRANS de WAAL: refuted (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 12, 2016, 18:33 (2719 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You have headed this thread: Frans de Waal: refuted, and you say that the review refutes “his claims of animal intelligence”. Of course you don’t mean that animals have no degree of intelligence, so what do these arguments refute? Does de Waal claim that apes spontaneously behave or talk like humans, or that they have the same degree of self-awareness as humans?

The reviewer shows de Waal over emphasizes what apes can do mentally. That is the refutation. You like to support minor similarities, but admit the gaps are huge.

dhw: I have no difficulty with a varying “degree of sharing”. But if we and our fellow animals have the same ability to do something, I would argue that this suggests similarity, not difference.

I understand, to defend your position, similarities are of supreme importance, while ignoring the immensity of the differences.