Animal Intelligence

Do animals have intelligence? This question has undoubtedly been debated for many centuries. There are three views, as Dr. Hauser explained to us. The first view is that animals have intelligence, as evident by dogs catching frisbees and obeying their owners. An alternative view was by B.F. Skinner, who proposed that animals actually had no intelligence at all. Rather, the actions of the animals were coincidental. Finally, a third view on this matter was proposed by Wolfgang Kohler. His theorized that animals had a “lightbulb insight.” Animals suddenly had insights which allowed them to perform certain tasks.
The lecture was broken down into three parts: Hamlet’s’ error, Metal Toolkits and Kafka creatures. Dr. Hauser started with the first section, Hamlet’s error. Basically, nature was believed to exist in an animal hierarchy, but actually it is not a linear scale. A hierarchy view of intelligence, viewed by Hamlet, basically viewed that animal...