Animal reasoning: negation and representations of absence

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Published: May 10, 2011
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32348/1852.4206.v3.n1.5231
Keywords:
non-human animals, non-linguistic creatures, rationality, comparative psychology, cognitive ethology, Bermúdez

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Jorge Morales Ladrón de Guevara
Columbia University. Philosophy Department

Abstract

In this paper I reject the possibility that animal reasoning, negation in particular, necessarily involves the representation of Absence, as suggested by José Luis Bermúdez, since this would still work as a logical negation (unavailable for non-linguistic creatures). False belief, pretense, and communication experiments show that non-human animals (at least some primates) have difficulties representing absent entities or properties. I offer an alternative account resorting to the sub-symbolic similarity judgments proposed by Vigo & Allen and I introduce the notion of expectation: animal proto-negation takes place through the incompatibility between an expected and the actual representation. Finally, I propose that the paradigm of expectations can be extrapolated to other experiments in cognitive psychology (both with pre-linguistic children and animals) in order to design ?fair? experiments which test other minds considering their true abilities.

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How to Cite
Animal reasoning: negation and representations of absence. (2011). Argentinean Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 3(1), 20-33. https://doi.org/10.32348/1852.4206.v3.n1.5231
Issue
Vol 3, No 1 (2011): Special Issue: "Intentionality and Conscience: Recent Approaches"
Section
Intencionalidad y Conciencia: Abordajes Recientes

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How to Cite

Animal reasoning: negation and representations of absence. (2011). Argentinean Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 3(1), 20-33. https://doi.org/10.32348/1852.4206.v3.n1.5231

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