Rational Animals?

by Susan Hurley, Matthew Nudds

Overview

This book focuses on one of the major debates in science today - how closely does mental processing in animals resembles mental processing in humans. It addresses the question of whether and to what extent non-human animals are rational, that is, whether any animal behaviour can be regarded as the result of a rational thought processes. It does this with attention to three key questions, which recur throughout the book and which have both empirical and philosophical aspects: What kinds of behavioural tasks can animals successfully perform? What if any mental processes must be postulated to explain their performance at these tasks? What properties must processes have to count as rational? The book is distinctive in pursuing these questions not only in relation to our closest relatives, the primates, whose intelligence usually gets the most attention, but also in relation to birds and dolphins, where striking results are also being obtained.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198528272
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	568
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 6.60(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

1. The questions of animal rationality: theory and evidence, Susan Hurley & Matthew NuddsPart I - Types and Levels of Rationality2. Meanings of rationality, Alex Kacelnik3. Minimal rationality, Fred I Dretske4. Styles of rationality, Ruth Garrett Millikan5. Animal reasoning and proto-logic, Jose Luis Bermudez6. Making sense of animals, Susan HurleyPart II - Rational versus Associative Processes7. Transitive inference in animals: reasoning or conditioned associations?, Colin Allen8. Rational or associative: Imitation in Japanese quail, David Papineau & Cecilia Heyes9. The rationality of animal memory: complex caching strategies of western scrub jays, Nicky Clayton, Nathan Emery & Anthony DickinsonPart III - Metacognition10. Descartes' two errors: reason and reflection in the great apes, Josep Call11. Do animals know what they know?, Sara J Shettleworth & Jennifer E Sutton12. Metacognition and animal rationality, Joelle Proust13. Rationality, decentring, and the evidence for pretence in nonhuman animals, Gregory Curriepart IV - Social Behavior and Cognition14. Folk logic and animal rationality, Kim Sterelny15. Rationality in capuchin monkey's feeding behavior?, Elsa Addessi & Elisabetta Visalberghi16. Social cognition in the wild: Machiavellian dolphins?, Richard Connor & Janet MannPaart V - Mind Reading and Behavior Reading17. Do chimpanzees know what others see - or only what they are looking at?, Michael Tomasello & Josep Call18. We don't need a microscope to explore the chimpanzee's mind, Daniel Povinelli & Jennifer Vonk19. Belief attribution tasks with dolphins: what social minds can reveal about animal rationality, Alain J-P C TschudinPart VI - Behavior and Cognition in Symbolic Environments20. Intelligence and rational behavior in the bottle-nosed dolphin, Louis M Herman21. Intelligence and rationality in parrots, Irene M Pepperberg22. Effects of symbols on chimpanzee cognition, Sarah T Boysen23. Language as a window on rationality, E Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Duanae M Rumbaugh & William M Fields

Editorial Reviews

"This extremely interesting and informative book documents the advances in psychology as well as in philosophy that challenge the idea of the unique rationality of humans. Written and edited by a distinguished group of philosophers and behavioral scientists, this book is a welcome contribution to this emerging new view of the uniqueness of humanity...This is an excellent and informative book on animal rationality."—Doody's

"It is not often that one reads a book of more than 560 pages wishing it would not end, but that is my emotion. The editors' attention to detail is matched by the publisher's attention to the quality in production."—PsycCRITIQUES

"Rational Animals? stays focused on a much narrower topic, producing an in-depth and thorough discussion that should be mandatory reading for modern students of the animal mind...A magnificant addition to any bookshelf— candy for both the eye and the brain."—Aquatic Mammals

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Michael Schrift, DO (University of Washington School of Medicine)
Description: We are on the verge of a paradigm shift regarding the issue of whether humans are the only rational living entity on planet Earth. Immanuel Kant's influential moral theory included autonomy as a necessary property to be the kind of being whose interests are to count directly in the moral assessment of actions. He believed that morally permissible actions are those actions that could be willed by all rational individuals in the circumstances. Kant believed that while both animals and human beings have desires that can compel them to action, only humans are capable of standing back from their desires and choosing which course of action to take, as manifested by our wills. He thought that animals lack this ability, that they lack a will, and therefore are not autonomous. Rene Descartes believed that all of animal behavior could be explained in purely mechanistic terms, and that no reference to conscious episodes was required for such an explanation. Humans, on the other hand he believed, are capable of complex and novel behavior and that this behavior is not the result of simple responses to stimuli, but is instead the result of our reasoning about the world as we perceive it. Also, human beings are capable of the kind of speech that expresses thoughts and that only human beings can engage in the kind of speech that is spontaneous and expresses thoughts. This extremely interesting and informative book documents the advances in psychology as well as in philosophy that challenge the idea of the unique rationality of humans. Written and edited by a distinguished group of philosophers and behavioral scientists, this book is a welcome contribution to this emerging new view of the uniqueness of humanity.
Purpose: The purpose of the book is outline for the reader the theoretical issues and controversies that bear on the attributes of animal rationality. The editors aim "to bring leading empirical work with different species together for comparison, and to bring philosophical arguments about rationality into contact with empirical evidence...." Indeed, the editors and chapter authors have succeeded in their aim and have produced an intriguing book.
Audience: The intended audience includes students and researchers in various disciplines; in particular, philosophers of mind and cognitive neuroscientists.
Features: The introductory chapter is essentially a summary of the book and provides the theory and evidence involved in the question of animal rationality. The remainder of the book addresses the types and levels of rationality, rational versus associative processes, metacognition, social and cognition behavior, mind reading and behavior reading, and the last chapter focuses on symbolic representation and language as a window on rationality. Each chapter ends with pertinent and timely references.
Assessment: This is an excellent, informative book on animal rationality. Vitalism has its last stand with the issue of consciousness. This book helps you see that there are hardly any threads left (if at all) for Vitalism to hang on to.

Doody's Review Service