The nature and nurturing of animal minds
Thornton, A; Boogert, NJ
Date: 1 April 2019
Book chapter
Publisher
Wiley
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Abstract
Introduction:This chapter deals with ideas as old as Western philosophy itself. What is the nature of the
mind, and how is it shaped? What is humanity’s place in nature? In Aristotelian philosophy,
nature was conceived as a linear, ladder-like progression of forms, from the lowly to the
divine. During the Middle Ages, beautiful ...
Introduction:This chapter deals with ideas as old as Western philosophy itself. What is the nature of the
mind, and how is it shaped? What is humanity’s place in nature? In Aristotelian philosophy,
nature was conceived as a linear, ladder-like progression of forms, from the lowly to the
divine. During the Middle Ages, beautiful tableaus depicted this scala naturae as a glorious
ladder of life with God and heavenly beings followed in descending order down the rungs by
noblemen (not women) and commoners and then in turn by wild animals, domesticated
animals, plants and minerals (Figure 1). Under this view, the human mind was uniquely
endowed with the capacity for thought; a capacity that separates us from the rest of the
animal kingdom and links us to the divine. Whereas animals were mere automata, Descartes
(1637/1994) taught that humanity had a dual nature: a material body inhabited by a divine
soul (residing in the pineal gland). Through this duality, we alone could reason and think. [...]
Biosciences - old structure
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