Are animals also rational and thinking creatures?

Question

I wonder, sometimes i see animals do bizarre things. Humans usually tend to think of animals as simply that. But are they rational and thinking creatures? Perhaps they are thinking about the meaning of existence too?

Answer 1

Of course they are thinking creatures. Many animals are very good at solving problems, and that is what rationality and thinking is.

A cat does not insinctively know how to use a cat door. They can be taught or they can figure it out for themselves.

Don't forget, those behaviours that you think of as bizzare may be perfectly natural and "rational" for them.

Do you ever wonder what a dog thinks about humans crapping indoors while they are forced to do it outside?

Message to "Janelle B." Animals, such as chimps are not "taught" to think. They think already. There have been many experiments and observations done where chimps (and other animals) are given problems and those creatures are left to figure out there own solutions. In one classic test, a chimp was left in a room with a banana suspended just out of his reach. The scientests left a pole with a hook laying on a table. They wanted to see how long it would take the ape to figure out how to use the pole and hook. It took only a few moments, after trying to jump to the banana, for the chimp to shove the pole off of the table and move the table under the fruit. From there, it was an easy jump to retreive the banana.

The "brainy" scientists assumed there was only one solution to the problem. The chimp figured out another.

And, when you think about rationality and self-awareness, consider another experiment done in the 1930s. Several large chimps were put into a room, set up so that scientists could observe, through a peephole, how the apes socialized in a bare, sterile environment. When one scientist took his turn at the peephole, he was surprised to see the eyball of a chimp, looking back, observing him!

Answer 2

A learned response to a stimuli is not rational thinking and reasoning. Pavlov's dogs, having rational thinking, would not have salivated at the ringing of a bell is food was withheld some of the time. They would have reasoned that there was no sure bet they were getting the food and would have only salivated when they saw the food.

Answer 3

Animals other than humans do not have typical, rational capacity. They do have cognitive capacity, as evidenced by their ability to assess their surrounds and react to various stimuli accordingly.

For instance, an animal can figure out the best way to hunt based on the layout of their surrounding environment. But that animal doesn't have the capacity to figure out WHY it is hunting.

Answer 4

Animals, especially dogs, have shown how rational and thinking they are. They work as companions, guide the blind, help the hearing impaired by alerting them to everyday situations such as the telephone ringing or someone at the door. Also, work with police as partners or as search and rescue helpers. They are wonderful watch dogs and will alert you to danger in your home.

All they really want and need is unconditional love which you get back tenfold.

Answer 5

Pets have the ability to figure things out, but it usually by trial and error, not by reasoning. They can understand cause and effect to a point, but they don't have the complex thought patterns that humans have. I doubt any species other than man has contemplated his own existence.

Answer 6

Don't humans act like that sometimes too though?A trained horse will think rationally.

Answer 7

Some can be taught to think, such as chimps, but most are just concerned with basic needs, food, shelter, reproducing. They act on pure instict and their main instinct is survival.

Answer 8

Not really, but they also do search for happiness like each human does. Mind set may be lesser, but still the drive is the same.

Answer 9

animals are instinctive creatures some can think to some degree, but know instinctively what is in the plan for survival

Answer 10

Whoa!! You're talking about Planet of the Apes?