Animal Cognition in Aristotle

doi:10.1017/9781108181792.013

Chapter 12 - Animal Cognition in Aristotle

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2021

Sophia M. Connell

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Sophia M. Connell

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Sophia M. Connell: Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London

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Summary

Aristotle wrote extensively about the character and behavior of non-human animals in his Historia Animalium. One aspect of character is cognitive abilities. The chapter sets out Aristotle’s views on the cognitive abilities of animals, evidenced also in other works such as the Metaphysics and De Anima. All animals perceive but many also have imagination, memory, and practical intelligence. For Aristotle nonhuman animals have a sort of practical intelligence suited to their particular ways of life. The considerable overlap in cognitive abilities between human and nonhuman animals allows Aristotle to establish a biological basis for many human traits. Many nonhuman animals not only manage to organize their lives and negotiate new challenges but also maintain relationships with each other over extended periods. Social relationships require complex communication and involve a very important type of intelligence which is perfected in the most political of animals, human beings. The chapter ends with an account of how human cognition differs from that which occurs in other animals.

Keywords

intelligence parenting social animals nous nonhuman animals speech prohairesis

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology , pp. 195 - 210

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108181792.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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References

Guide to Further Reading

Sorabji, R. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), Chapters 1–7.Google Scholar

Coles, A. 1997. “Animal and Childhood Cognition in Aristotle’s Biology and the Scala Naturae,” in Kullmann, W. and Föllinger, S. (eds.), Aristotelische Biologie: Intentionen, Methoden, Ergebnisse (Stuttgart: Steiner), 287–324.Google Scholar

Glock, H.-J. 2019. “Aristotle on the Anthropological Difference and Animals Minds,” in Keil, G. and Kreft, N. (eds.), Aristotle’s Anthropology (Cambridge University Press), 140–160.Google Scholar

Lloyd, G. E. R. 2013. “Aristotle on Natural Sociability, Skills and Intelligence in Animals,” in Harte, V. and Lane, M. (eds.), Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), 277–293.Google Scholar

Lloyd, G. E. R. 1983a. Science, Folklore and Ideology: Studies in the Life Sciences in Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar

Osbourne [Rowett], C. 2007. Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers: Humanity and the Humane in Ancient Philosophy and Literature (Oxford University Press), chapter 4.Google Scholar

Labarrière, J. L. 1990. “De la Phronesis Animale,” in Devereux, D. and Pellegrin, P. (eds.), Biologie, Logique et Metaphysique chez Aristote (Paris: l’Editions de Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), 405–428.Google Scholar

Balme, D. 1991. “Introduction,” in Aristotle: History of Animals. Books 7–10 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar

Fortenbaugh, W. 1971. “Aristotle: Animals, Emotion and Moral Virtue,” Arethusa 4(2): 137–165.Google Scholar

Lennox, J. G. 1999a. “Aristotle on the Biological Roots of Virtue: The Natural History of Natural Virtue,” in Maienschein, J. and Ruse, M. (eds.), Biology and the Foundations of Ethics (Cambridge University Press), 10–31. [Reprinted in D. Henry and K. M. Nielsen (eds.), 2015. Bridging the Gap Between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics (Cambridge University Press), 193–213]Google Scholar

Connell, S. 2019. “Mothering and Intelligence in Aristotle’s Biology and Ethics,” in Sfendoni-Mentzou, D. (ed.), Proceedings of Aristotle World Congress, Aristotle 2400 Years, May 23–28, 2016 (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Press), 122–127.Google Scholar

Depew, D. 1995. “Humans and Other Political Animals in Aristotle’s History of Animals,” Phronesis 40(2): 156–181.CrossRef Google Scholar

Pellegrin, P. 2015. “Is Politics a Natural Science?” in Lockwood, T. and Samaris, T. (eds.), Aristotle’s Politics: A Critical Guide (Cambridge University Press), 27–45.Google Scholar