Animal Minds (Animals)

by David Turell , Monday, June 20, 2011, 00:09 (4904 days ago) @ dhw

David says that humans are different in kind from other animals. I pointed out that all species were different in kind, and asked what was the significance of this fact.
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> DAVID: Hyenas, humpbacks, bees, elephants, humming birds all have what we have to a degree, but we are different in kind (Adler). Where are the elephant Mozarts? The Bach bees? The Shakespeare sheep? The animals have a smidgen of what we have. You are equating an ant hill with Mt Everest.
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> I must stress that I am equating the basic instincts, not the intellectual, aesthetic, scientific or philosophical capacity!-And that is fine, but it is bypassing the points I have made over the years. I am not discussing animals as organisms with certain physical and mental qualities. I am looking as humans as possessing an infinitely more complex brain with extraordinary capacities. That brain is different in kind, not degree from bats, buffaloes, whales, dolphins, apes, chimps, corvids, etc. Same basic instincts, yes. Aestheic capacities, infinitely enormous in the human brain. Compare the lower animals from us? You should know better. There is no real comparison, except at the simple levels you decribe, we inherit the same basic comparisons. Again, that is tiny portion of what we humans are. And that brain is contained in a body which is much more capable of intricate activity than our closest relatives. Put a chimp at bat in cricket. Any doubt as to the outcome? Even with training, if that is possible. There are so many ways in which we differ.-See Raymond Talls' book, 'Aping Mankind', just being released, which states that we differ in kind, not degree.