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    Animal cognition in Aristotle

    Connell, Sophia M. (2021) Animal cognition in Aristotle. In: Connell, Sophia M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107197732. (In Press)

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    Abstract

    Aristotle wrote extensively about the character and behavior of non-human animals in his Historia Animalium. One aspect of character is cognitive abilities. The chapter sets out Aristotle’s views on the cognitive abilities of animals, evidenced also in other works such as the Metaphysics and De Anima. All animals perceive but many also have imagination, memory and practical intelligence. For Aristotle nonhuman animals have a sort of practical intelligence suited to their particular ways of life. The considerable overlap in cognitive abilities between human and non-human animals allows Aristotle to establish a biological basis for many human traits. Many nonhuman animals not only manage to organize their lives and negotiate new challenges but also maintain relationships with each other over extended periods. Social relationships require complex communication and involve a very important type of intelligence which is perfected in the most political of animals, human beings. The chapter ends with an account of how human cognition differs from that which occurs in other animals.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book Section
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Research Centres and Institutes: Research in Environment and Sustainability, Centre for
    Depositing User: Sophia Connell
    Date Deposited: 18 Mar 2021 11:36
    Last Modified: 10 May 2024 15:23
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/41842

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