Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1912 — Animals Have Not Faculty Of Reasoning [ARTICLE]

Animals Have Not Faculty Of Reasoning

By A. STEELE

It may be proved scientifically that all acts of animals can be acounted for without supposing them to possess the power of reasoning, of drawing conclusions from premises. They give no signs of reqsoning and this becomes more evident when we compare their actions with those of rational man. ", , All men, in full possession of their faculties, can grasp the abstract relation be- <. .tween means and ends, inventing and making new and various means, tools to accomplish their designs. Brute animals never do so; they can only follow the one beaten

track to which their specific nature determines them. A man can improve himself by |tudy, by exertions of his own talents, but brutes cannot do thiiji. They may be taught various actions by man, but they cannot improve themselves. A race of men may increase in knowledge and civilization, but brutes act now as they were always known to act. i AA hile brute animals have not the faculty of they have a power or aptitude for the proper guidance of their actions, which supplies for them tlid place of reason. This is callediinstinct. '■* It is the natural impulse tlrat "prompts animals to do what is useful to the individual and the species.