Different in degree or kind: animal minds (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, January 15, 2016, 01:20 (3018 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: That is the scenario I am proposing for all organisms: that they do their own thinking - not on anything like the scale of us humans, but within the parameters of their own particular nature. Not under instruction, but using their own autonomous intelligence (possibly God-given). I'm afraid this is nowhere near to your thinking.-Once you say possibly 'God-given', it implies that these 'thinking' organisms can plan some advance that works. No hunt and peck, for that is chance, which you don't accept. I don't accept that lower organisms can do advanced planning.-> dhw: All we can do is look at the history and come up with hypotheses that might explain it. Your own hypothesis entails a dislocation between your anthropocentrism and God's personal planning of all the wonders. Mine offers an all-embracing explanation with room both for your God and even for special attention to humans.-I don't view my approach as a dislocation. That is your interpretation of the evolution we see..
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> dhw: I seem to remember you occasionally granting the possibility that God is neither all-powerful nor all-knowing, and that he may be capable of learning from experience, or “becoming”, as in process theology.-That is true, but doesn't change my view hat his ultimate goal was humans.