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Category

Animal minds

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 4, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Mind
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At Mind Matters News: Why animals can count but can’t do math

Denyse O'Leary
August 4, 2021
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Mind
There is a current conflict among researchers as to whether our number sense is biological or cultural (nature or nurture). But the conflict appears to miss the point: Elaborate number sense depends on the ability to abstract. If that ability is biological, where exactly is it? If it is cultural, it is an iteration of the ability to abstract. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 3, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Intelligent Design
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Researchers: Giraffes turn out to be a complex social species

Denyse O'Leary
August 3, 2021
Animal minds, Intelligent Design
Zoe Muller is right to wonder why researchers simply assumed that the giraffe lacked the wit for social skills without having studied the species much. It would be interesting to know if “evolutionary” assumptions underlay that view. Generally, such assumptions should be treated with caution. For example, “evolutionary” assumptions would not prompt researchers to believe that octopuses are as intelligent as they are. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 16, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Convergent evolution, Intelligent Design
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Researchers: Spiders use the same cues as vertebrates in distinguishing living vs. non-living things

Denyse O'Leary
July 16, 2021
Animal minds, Convergent evolution, Intelligent Design
Researchers: Complex vision evolved independently in vertebrates and arthropods and so the ability to distinguish living from non-living motion using the relative positioning of the joints has most likely arisen convergently in the two groups of animals. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 28, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Neuroscience
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At Oscillations: Information on the Linnean Society Virtual Meeting (June 28–29)

Denyse O'Leary
June 28, 2021
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Neuroscience
Oscillations is science writer Suzan Mazur’s blog. Mazur draws attention to the Linnean Society’s virtual conference, Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems: “Living systems exhibit an internal teleology, the full implications of which have not been explored. This meeting will address various aspects of this phenomenon, including its scope and meaning, and its many forms and facets.” Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 13, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion
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At Mind Matters News: Do any dogs go to heaven? If so, why?

Denyse O'Leary
June 13, 2021
Animal minds, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Religion
Neuroscientist Christof Koch was troubled as a child by the Catholic tradition that dogs like his beloved Purzel did not go to heaven. Ironically, human exceptionalism, which Koch decries, holds out the possibility that some beloved animals may indeed share immortality with humans. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 27, 2021
Categorized
Animal minds, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Do we really understand what intelligence in life forms is?

Denyse O'Leary
May 27, 2021
Animal minds, Intelligent Design
Thinking about Jeff Hawkins's new book, A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence (Basic Books 2021), championing the mammalian neocortex, for example, one might ask, what does the iconic mammalian neocortex do that equivalent systems in birds and octopuses can’t do? That’s not clear. And human intelligence is something different again. Read More ›