[Arlo] > many animal species exhibit (what we may think of as) rudimentary social > behaviors. That is, they mediate their behavior with some form of > socially negotiated symbolic activity.
This is how it works around here: I place equal amounts of the same food in each side of a twin-bowl food dish. If both cats come at the same side, they each eat from one side. Whenever one cat comes alone, she eats all of one side & leaves the other side.*** To me, this kind of reciprocal behavior is evidence of self-/other- consciousness, but I don't find it "socially negotiated symbolic activity". [Arlo] > For an ape to get that "tree concept", he would have to be > socialized by humans (as Koko was), or wait until a natural > evolutionary trajectory led two apes to an "Aha!" moment of shared > attention. I think such "Aha!" moments are rare. Consider when a child learns to read. There is rarely an "Aha!" moment, rather it proceeds "two steps forward & one step back" of increasing compentency. Craig *** This is a simplification. Actually, the cat will try one side, then the other, then finish one of the sides, leaving the other side (except for the sample that was already eaten). Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
