IX 

 DO ANIMALS THINK AND REFLECT? 



WHEN we see the animals going about, living 

 their lives in many ways as we live ours, 

 seeking their food, avoiding their enemies, building 

 their nests, digging their holes, laying up stores, 

 migrating, courting, playing, fighting, showing cun 

 ning, courage, fear, joy, anger, rivalry, grief, profit 

 ing by experience, following their leaders, when 

 we see all this, I say, what more natural than that we 

 should ascribe to them powers akin to our own, and 

 look upon them as thinking, reasoning, and reflect 

 ing. A hasty survey of animal life is sure to lead to 

 this conclusion. An animal is not a clod, nor a block, 

 nor a machine. It is alive and self-directing, it has 

 some sort of psychic life, yet the more I study the 

 subject, the more I am persuaded that with the 

 probable exception of the dog on occasions, and of 

 the apes, animals do not think or reflect in any proper 

 sense of those words. As I have before said, animal 

 life shows in an active and free state that kind of 

 intelligence that pervades and governs the whole 

 organic world, intelligence that takes no thought 

 of itself. Here, in front of my window, is a black 

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