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Dogs that don't hark in the night: How to invesligate the lack of a domain of expertise?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Dorothy L. Cheney  and
Robert M. Seyfarth
Dorothy L. Cheney
Affiliation:
University of Penn
Robert M. Seyfarth
Affiliation:
University of Penn
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Extract

Apparently stupid animals often do remarkably intelligent things. Leaf-cutting ants, for example, “plant” leaves in underground farms, where they cultivate particular species of fungus to provision their colony. In so doing, the ants act as if they understand the environrnental conditions that optimize fungus growth. Entomologists studying this behavior, however, are rarely tempted to interpret the ants’ activities as conscious or goal-directed. Instead, they view them as relatively inflexible adaptations to particular selective pressures. Ants are good at cultivating fungus, but this is not taken as proof of any general skills in problem solving or learning.

Type
Part IV: Cognitive Ethology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1992 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1992 , 1993 , pp. 92 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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