RE: MD Clearing up this intellectual mess

From: Paul Turner (paul@turnerbc.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jun 22 2005 - 19:35:48 BST

  • Next message: Allen Barrows: "RE: MD Clearing up this intellectual mess"

    Mike,

    I wanted to add something before the more obvious bowling balls come flying
    at me!

    I said: "Thinking, to me, is obviously something that bacteria don't do, so
    this passage is, in my view, a bit of reductio ad absurdum in overkill. I
    always associated thinking (as opposed to, say, problem-solving) with
    something only humans did but given that many are prone to ascribing thought
    to chimpanzees I am happy to drop the term from any definition of the
    intellectual level."

    If I may now add that:

    a) by "problem-solving" I meant physical problem-solving like pulling
    levers, moving blocks into holes etc., not quadratic equations and such
    like.

    b) I think that only humans think because it seems as though only humans
    write and speak in sentences or mathematical or logical notation. So I
    already use a fairly narrow definition of thinking anyway.

    Regards

    Paul

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