Animal Cognition: Monkey Looks Contradict Hume

Hume, Causal Realism, and Free Will

My aim in this paper is to present what I consider to be the decisive objection against the ‘New Hume’ Causal realist interpretation of Hume, and to refute three recent attempts to answer this objection. I start in §1 with an outline of the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ interpretations. Then §2 sketches the traditional case in favour of the former, while §3 presents the decisive objection to the latter, base...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition Do You See What I See? A Comparative Investigation of the Delboeuf Illusion in Humans (Homo sapiens), Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta), and Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)

Evolution of language from action understanding

There are different theories about language evolution. Some authors claim that language evolved from monkey vocalization, others from gestural communication. Others even denies a direct evolution of language from some monkey precursor, considering the former as a completely new acquisition of the human gender, with characteristics that are completely different from any other animal cognitive fu...

Animal Consciousness as a Test Case of Cognitive Science Some Theses

§1 Animal Minds? In our dealings with animals at least most of us see them as conscious beings. We say “the dog feels pain” ascribing sensation. We notice “My cat wants to get in the kitchen because she thinks there is some cheese left” ascribing beliefs and desires. On the other hand the employment of human categories to animals seems to be problematic. Reflecting on the details of human belie...

Animal Consciousness as a Test Case of Cognitive Science

§1 Animal Minds? In our dealings with animals at least most of us see them as conscious beings. We say “the dog feels pain” ascribing sensation. We notice “My cat wants to get in the kitchen because she thinks there is some cheese left” ascribing beliefs and desires. On the other hand the employment of human categories to animals seems to be problematic. Reflecting on the details of human belie...