Note 62 — LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS.
Margaret R. Thomson translation
[Note 62] p. 260.—The Monkey Question.
The position of evolutionists in regard to the relations of man and monkeys is conveniently stated in Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature. A criticism of the thorough-going evolutionist position, from the philosopher’s point of view, will be found in Professor Calderwood’s Evolution and Man’s Place in Nature. A midway position is indicated in Wallace’s Darwinism.
While most naturalists are now thoroughly evolutionist in regard to the descent or ascent of man, as in regard to other problems, most would probably agree with Lloyd Morgan’s cautious conclusion:—
“In denying to animals the perception of relations and the faculty of reason, I do so in no dogmatic spirit, and not in support of any preconceived theory or opinion, but because the evidence now before us is not, in my opinion, sufficient to justify the hypothesis that any animals have reached that stage of mental evolution at which they are even incipiently rational.”
Probably all naturalists allow that animals who profit by experience and adapt their actions to varying circumstances are intelligent. But cases which force us to credit animals with general ideas, with “thinking the therefore”, in short, with reason, are admitted by few.