Sunday, March 9, 2008
Locke- Book 2- Chapter 10- page 97- "Retention"
In book 2, chapter 10, Locke is discussing retention. Now, this is an amazing thing for humans that we are capable of remembering (some, not all) things. Locke discusses how we have the ability to remember things from our past. Sometimes more easily or clearer than other times but we still have the ability. He calls it an ability of the mind because we do not have a literally speaking, physical filing cabinet in our brains. He says we have the ability to use our mind to remember something that once happened. Locke says that most memories that can be retreived best are those associated with pain and pleasure. He says as an example, it may be because at one time you were hurt, you do not want to be hurt again so you remember what it was that caused you pain, and you avoid it. Later on, on page 101, he talks about animals and their memory. He says, although he does not know how, he says birds must have some sort of ability to remember. He says birds can sing their songs one day and then sing the same song the next. He says that that ability is not like imitating another bird because even that would require some memory. But is Locke right? Do animals have the ability to remember (but at a lower degree) as we do?
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2 comments:
Its funny that you talk about this... i feel like it relates to one of the problems that you blogged about in Decartes... about the language in humans vs animals. I would think that animals do have a memory, like dogs can remember a particular smell for a certain person or how birds know that when it becomes colder outside that its time to fly south. As humans, our filing cabinets are huge and store so much information, but I highly doubt that other animals store as much info as we do.
I agree with Diana. All animals must have some type of memory storage, though Im sure not as complex as ours. But then who is to say its not? We have no proof of this, nor do I think we ever will...unless someone eventually comes up with an animal mind reader..But aanyways I do believe that they must have some recollection of past events. For example, as you said perhaps they remember painful experiences sp that they can try and prevent it from happing again. Think of an abused dog...doesn't it fear most people, have a problem trusting, and coward if they see something that may bring back a bad memory. My dog libby was abused, we rescued her, but when she sees a newspaper she goes running away, and even sometimes pees shes so scared! It couldn't be more apparent that she remebers what was done to her(which was obviously something to do with a newspaper).
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