Q&A: Animals and Intelligence
Animals and Intelligence
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’m watching the lecture series on free will and choice.
There you discuss the issue of intelligence, and a few questions came up for me:
1. You didn’t define what you mean by intelligence: you explain that it’s not just the ability to perform complex tasks (as we see in crows, for example), but something beyond that. And the question is: what?
2. I assume you know the story of the chimpanzee Washoe; if not, then briefly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee), especially the subsection: Self-awareness and emotion.
That raises the question whether that chimpanzee has intelligence, and if so, then perhaps the problem is that without sign language we had no access to the animal’s mind until then? In any case, the examples there seem to show that this chimpanzee definitely has something additional that is very similar to humans.
3. There are all kinds of unusual cases that raise question marks: phenomena of divided consciousness in split-brain cases, for example, or a condition like alien hand syndrome, where a hand suddenly seems to have a will of its own?
I’d be glad to hear what you think.
Answer
- I define it exactly as it is usually defined. I only argue that the ability to solve problems exists only when we are dealing with a creature that has free judgment. A programmed creature is not considered a creature with the ability to solve problems.
- I haven’t seen it, but I don’t understand the question. If the chimpanzee has free judgment, then it indeed has intelligence as well. And if not, then not.
- There are also cases of optical illusions (a fata morgana, for example). Does that lead you not to trust your eyes?