Chimps as secret agents.

We provide an account of chimpanzee-specific agency within the context of philosophy of action. We do so by showing that chimpanzees are capable of what we call reason-directed action, even though they may be incapable of more full-blown action, which we call reason-considered action. Although chimp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 193; no. 7; pp. 2129 - 2159
Autores principales: Arruda, Caroline, Povinelli, Daniel
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jul2016
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:We provide an account of chimpanzee-specific agency within the context of philosophy of action. We do so by showing that chimpanzees are capable of what we call reason-directed action, even though they may be incapable of more full-blown action, which we call reason-considered action. Although chimpanzee agency does not possess all the features of typical adult human agency, chimpanzee agency is evolutionarily responsive to their environment and overlaps considerably with our own. As such, it is an evolved set of capacities for goal-directed behavior, which solves problems that chimpanzees (and humans) naturally encounter. Thus, it ought not be understood as a deficient instance of human agency.