Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:31:14.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Temporal representation and reasoning in non-human animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Angelica Kaufmann
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel. [email protected]@wustl.eduhttps://biu.academia.edu/AngelicaKaufmann
Arnon Cahen
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel. [email protected]@wustl.eduhttps://biu.academia.edu/AngelicaKaufmann

Abstract

Hoerl & McCormack argue that comparative and developmental psychology teaches us that “neither animals nor infants can think and reason about time.” We argue that the authors neglect to take into account pivotal evidence from ethology that suggests that non-human animals do possess a capacity to represent and reason about time, namely, work done on Sumatran orangutans’ long travel calls.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Lameira, A. R. & Call, J. (2018) Time-space–displaced responses in the orangutan vocal system. Science Advances 4(11). doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau3401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peacocke, C. (2017) Temporal perception, magnitudes and phenomenal externalism. In: The Routledge handbook of philosophy of temporal experience, ed. Phillips, I., pp. 213–24. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spillmann, B., van Noordwijk, M. A., Willems, E. P., Mitra Setia, T., Wipfli, U. & van Schaik, C. P. (2015) Validation of an acoustic location system to monitor Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) long calls. American Journal of Primatology 77:767–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Schaik, C. P., Damerius, L. & Isler, K. (2013) Wild orangutan males plan and communicate their travel direction one day in advance. PLOS ONE 8(9):e74896. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed