Modern Whales^ Dolphins^ 

 and Porpoises^ as Challenges 

 to Our Intelligence 



By JOHN C. LILLY 



T 



JLhe intelligence of whales has been the subject 

 of speculation by writers since Ancient Greece/ ' The discovery 

 of the large brains of the Cetacea in the eighteenth century led 

 to inevitable comparisons of these brains to those of the humans 

 and of the lower primates. The winds of scholarly opinions 

 concerning the whales have anciently blown strongly for high 

 inteUigence but during later centuries shifted strongly against 

 high intelligence. At the time of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) the 

 dolphin, for example, was held in high esteem, and many stories 

 of the apparently great abilities of these animals were current.'' 

 By the time of Plinius Secundus (A.D. 23-79) the beginning of 

 a note of skepticism was introduced. Plinius said, "I should be 

 ashamed to tell the story were it not that it has been written 

 about by . . . others.'" 



In the middle ages the strong influence of religious philosophy 

 on thinking placed Man in a completely separate compartment 

 from all other living creatures, and the accurate anatomy of the 



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