Mind, thinking and speech of animals

Do animals think? Do animals have consciousness… Most of those who have pets are absolutely convinced that: «Yes!» They see it concretely, and no armchair «scientists» will convince them otherwise. According to their ideas, any animal that is able to PLAY possesses consciousness and thinking. For example, a kitten. In fact, they simply adhere to such a DEFINITION of the concept of «consciousness», according to which it turns out that way.

As for science, there are three main points of view (paradigms) about the presence of thinking and speech in animals.

For an Eastern person, including a man of science, such a question has simply never been raised: it is clear there that thinking and speech are inherent in animals in the same way as in humans. And we still have to see who is smarter in what situation.

The tradition of Soviet science (and behaviorism) asserts the opposite, namely, that there is an abyss between animals and man, namely, animals in the proper sense of thinking and speech do not have, there are only rudiments and analogues of this. It is the presence of thinking and speech that is the main difference between man and animals. there are only analogues of thinking and speech, rudiments.

The third, pan-European tradition was that the presence of thinking and speech in animals is not a clear question and is subject to scientific research. Only in the 19th century did scientists begin to lean towards the position that higher animals also have thinking and speech. The decisive factor was the authority of Charles Darwin, who said that the difference between the psyche of man and animals is only in degree, and not in quality. Since then, scientists have recognized that higher animals also have their own thinking and their own speech, although they are quite primitive. As Ladygina-Kots showed back in 1911, the chimpanzee possesses not only the ability to learn, to distinguish between colors and size, but also to generalize on the basis of «color» and «size». And this is already a sign of thinking. W. Keller conducted experiments on chimpanzees who “guessed” how to use a stick as a tool to get a banana, and came to the conclusion that animals are capable of behavior similar to rational human behavior, capable of reasonable insight.