N'waswitshaka males

[afortich]

(04-20-2022, 11:05 PM)Duco Ndona Wrote: I think there is no concrete evidence for some kind of human "mind" that animals don't possess. The whole concept directly violates various scientific ideas such as the Copernicus rule and the theory of evolution. The idea of animals being purely instinct driven machines compared with the thinking rational man that has shed itself of any instinct only holds up if you never spend any time with either animals or humans. 

Just like we, they have to weigh options, plan, learn and adapt to perform successful hunts. A lion isn't born a skilled hunter or fighter. And just like them, we are driven by carnal desires to feed, copulate and protect our young. Ultimately all our process is nothing more than tools to satisfy our base instincts. 

That being said, animals do think a lot different than us. The mind is ultimately nothing more than just another organ to evolve and most animals split millions of years ago from our evolutionary tree and developed far different means to deal with life. We have to be extremely wary of anthropormation or projecting our ideals on them and the wild just doesn't offer the same luxuries as we have. 

Not to mention our information on animal life is highly generalised and incomplete. So we see lots of behaviour that makes perfect sense when looking at the wants and needs of a individual animal, but directly violates our ideas how they should behave as a species.

I would have to add that "Rational Thinking" goes beyond carnal desires or necessities, and I would not relate the same to organs such as the brain. 

Rational Thinking is what enables humans to differentiate between concepts of good, bad, feelings, etc., and define some of the boundaries between human behaviors and animal behaviors.
Consequently, when you see animal behaviors crossing said boundaries, it would add some beginning of rationality that goes beyond carnal desires/necessities.

Otherwise, all animals will behave in the same manner and all humans will behave in the same manner, thus, every action would be predictable, which is neither the case for humans nor for animals. Reply