Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Crows Understand a Fundamental Part of Logical Reasoning

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

David Hume wrote, "It is certain that the most ignorant and stupid peasants — nay infants, nay even brute beasts — improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects which result from them." We see this over and over again; this link adds to that evidence, as we see crows using heavy objects to raise the level if water in a glass in order to reach food floating in it. Whatever theory of learning we have, it seems ervident that it must be simple enough that children and animals can use it, and this seems to me to rule out theories requiring complex constructivism or the making of meaning. Because crows don't make meaning.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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