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Excerpted
from "What Do Dogs Know?":
 Some
scientists are convinced that dogs cannot really think
or reason; all of the behaviors that your dog engages
in are therefore supposed to be done without thought,
planning or insight. These experts still believe the theories
of the French philosopher Descartes, who described dogs
as machines, filled with the biological equivalent of
gears and pulleys. Like other machines they don't think,
but they can be programmed to do certain things.
Some say that Descartes had a
hidden agenda. For if dogs can think,and if they have
consciousness -- then, according to church doctrine, they
must also have souls. Anything with a soul is eligible
for entry into Heaven, of course, and some members of
the clergy were becoming concerned about possible overcrowding
in Paradise. Machines, however; have no souls; therefore
one need not allow an Akita-shaped automaton or a mechanized
Maltese to pass through the Pearly Gates of Heaven. As
a by-product, one assumes, there would be no necessity
to institute leash laws for dogs exercising on the Elysian
Fields.
Copyright
© 1999 Stanley Coren.
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