Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animalsKindermann, Henny
Science
Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animals
Kindermann, Henny
Animal intelligence; Dogs -- Folklore
If all the manifestations were to be attributed to the intelligence of
others and none to the animal, we should have to accept the supposition
of an absolutely _mechanical_ automatism in the animal itself of the
type suggested by Neumann (8)[29] as the result of his experiments with
Rolf, when, for instance, the dog mechanically kept on tapping an
unlimited number of times on the cardboard, which Neumann held out to
it without, as far as possible, moving it.
[29] NOTE.--The numbers in the text refer to the Bibliography at
the end.
This negative result of Neumann's is capable of various possible
explanations, and in no way gives any clear indication (just
because it is negative) as to how a positive result is at all
possible; that is, we cannot conclude from it any better than
before, whether the apparently "mechanical" behaviour of the animal
was intentional, and therefore whether the animal itself could or
could not have behaved otherwise; whether, given the impossibility
of the animal behaving differently, we should say that this
impossibility was absolute or only happened to occur on this
occasion; whether perchance the action of some psychical factor
unknown to Neumann between the animal and himself may not have been
omitted; and whether such factor was not in operation when the
animal was working with its late mistress, etc., etc. In this
connexion I feel it incumbent upon me to recall that I myself saw
Rolf on two or three occasions behave in this same apparently
mechanical way with his mistress (Mrs. Moekel) (II), whose
annoyance thereat seemed so real that I felt certain that it was
not feigned. From Neumann's point of view this would be
incomprehensible--since he makes use of the argument from the
supposed absolute automatism under the impression that it had taken
place in Rolf with _him_, Neumann, alone, _but not_ with the
Moekels. Here, then, it is clear that the intelligence is, or at
least that it is also, "in others."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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