Human beings have spent centuries studying the behavior of animals. The ethology, which is what this scientific discipline is called, aims, among other questions, to resolve whether animals think or not. Since we have made intelligence one of the "keys" to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the animals.
In this article on our site we will explain the key concepts of studies aimed at assessing the sensory and cognitive abilities of animals. Do animals think? We explain everything about animal intelligence.
What is thinking?
If we want to reach a conclusion about whether animals think or not, the first thing is to define what we mean by the action of thinking. Pensar comes from the Latin Pensare, which meant to weigh, calculate, or think. The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it as form or combine ideas or judgments in the mind. The dictionary indicates several meanings, among which it stands out mentally examining something carefully to form a judgment, having the intention of doing something or forming a judgment or opinion about something in the mind.
All these actions immediately bring to mind another concept from which thought cannot be separated and which is none other than intelligenceThis term can be defined as the faculty of the mind that allows to learn, understand, reason, make decisions and form an idea of reality. Determining which animal species can be considered intelligent has been a constant subject of study over time.
According to the given definition, practically all animals could be considered intelligent, since they manage to learn and, in other words, adapt to their environmentAnd it is that intelligence is not only solving mathematical operations or similar. On the other hand, other definitions include the ability to use instruments, create culture, that is, be able to transmit teachings from parents to children, or simply appreciate the beauty of a work of art or a sunset. In addition, the ability to communicate through language, even using symbols or signs , is considered a sign of intelligence as it assumes a high level of abstraction to unite meanings and signifiers. Intelligence, as we see, depends on where the researcher places it.
The subject of animal intelligence is controversial and involves both the scientific field as well as the philosophical and religious. And this is so because, by calling ourselves Homo sapiens, we are marking a difference between our species and the rest, which, in a certain way, legitimizes us to exploit the rest of the animals for considering them, in a certain way, inferior.
Therefore, one cannot lose sight of the ethics in the investigation of this issue. It is also important that we memorize the name of a scientific discipline, ethology, which is defined as the comparative study of animal behavior.
On the other hand, studies always have the anthropocentric bias as they are proposed by humans, who are also the ones who interpret the results from their perspective and their way of understanding the world, which does not have to be the same as that of animals where, for example, smell or hearing will predominate more. And that without mentioning the absence of language, a fact that limits our understanding. Observations in the natural environment should also be assessed against those created artificially in laboratories.
The investigations continue in progress and are throwing up new data. For example, in light of current knowledge from the Great Ape Project it is requested that these primates obtain the rights that correspond to them as hominids that are As we can see, intelligence has repercussions at an ethical and legislative level.
Do animals think or act by instinct?
Given the definition of thinking, to answer this question we need to determine the meaning of the term instinct Instinct alludes toinnate behaviors , therefore, not learned, which are transmitted through the genes. Therefore, all animals of the same species will respond in the same way to a given stimulus. Instincts are found in animals but let's not forget that they are also found in humans.
Studies designed to resolve the question of whether animals can think generally considered that mammals outperformed reptiles, amphibians, or fish in intelligence, which, in turn, were outperformed by birds. Among them, primates, elephants and dolphins stood out as the most intelligent. The octopus, considered to possess considerable intelligence, is an exception to this maxim.
Within studies on animal thought, whether or not they possess reasoning ability has also been assessed. Reasoning can be defined as the establishment of a relationship between different ideas or concepts to obtain conclusions or form a judgment. Based on this description of the concept yes we can consider that animals reason, since in some it has been appreciated that they are capable of using elements to solve a problem that is presented to them without resorting to trial and error.
Do animals think and feel?
The data we have presented so far does allow us to accept that animals think About whether they feel we also found evidence. In the first place we can differentiate the ability to feel physical pain. To this end, it has been established that those animals with nervous system can feel pain in a similar way to what humans experience. Therefore, to give an example about which it is intended to argue, categorically the bulls do feel pain in the ring.
But the question is also to determine if they suffer, that is, if they experience a psychological suffering The fact of sufferingstress , which can be objectively measurable by looking at the hormones that are secreted, seems to give an affirmative answer. The depression described in animals or the fact that some die after being abandoned without any physical cause would also confirm this assumption. Once again, the results of studies in this regard pose an ethical questioning and should make us reflect on our treatment of the rest of the animals on the planet.
Discover what animal welfare freedoms are and how they relate to stress on our site.
Examples of animal intelligence
The ability of some primates to communicate through sign language, the use of tools of these species, cephalopods or birds, the problem solving more or less complex, rats that stop eating food that have made their congeners feel bad or the use of thermal waters by the macaques of Japan are examples that have been worked on in the permanent study that we humans carry out to resolve the question of whether animals think. To find out more, we can read the studies by Desmond Morris, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Timbergen, Frans de Waall, Karl von Frisch, etc.
