A blooming and buzzing confusion: Buffon, Reimarus, and Kant on animal cognition

Abstract

This is a pre-print of the published article. The published article, which is revised and improved, is available at Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Theoretical virtues in eighteenth-century debates on animal cognition

“…Hermann Samuel Reimarus was born in Hamburg on 22 December 1694, and studied theology, philosophy, and ancient languages in Jena (van den Berg 2013 , van den Berg 2018a , Lötzsch 1979 ). In 1728, he became Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages at the Gymnasium in Hamburg (ibid.).…”

“…In 1754, he published a work on natural religion, Die vornehmsten Wahrheiten der natürlichen Religion (1754), followed by a book on logic, the Vernunftlehre (1756). His Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Triebe der Thiere , a work on animal instinct, was published in 1760 (van den Berg 2013 , Van den Berg 2018a , Lötzsch 1979 ).…”

“…134–144. Van den Berg 2018a ). Drives were taken to govern the efforts of animals toward specific actions.…”

“…As examples of learning by association, Reimarus mentioned a horse that enters a hostel where it has received food before, dogs that are afraid of sticks with which they have been beaten, and so forth, all of which are actions which Reimarus explained in terms of the imagination of animals and not reason (Reimarus 1762 , p. 20. For details, see van den Berg 2018a , p. 5). Moreover, Reimarus also argued that instincts do not fully determine animal behavior so that there is no room for variable behavior (Reimarus 1762 , pp.…”

“…Gaukroger ( 2017 ) discusses the naturalization of sensibility in the eighteenth century, providing discussion of the works of Condillac, whereas Cheung ( 2017 ) discusses the work of Cabanis on reaction centers in living systems. Cheung ( 2006 ) provides a clear discussion of Reimarus’ theory of animal drives, Ingensiep ( 1996 ) provides an overview of the debate on animal souls in eighteenth-century Germany, and van den Berg ( 2018a ) sketches the views on animal cognition of Buffon, Reimarus, and Kant, focusing, in contrast to this paper, mainly on the views on animal and human psychology of these authors. Finally, Riskin ( 2016 ) has written about the history of mechanism and agency in historical debates concerning animal cognition.…”