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I think therefore I am (a monkey): Rhesus 'understand Descartes as they've same self-awareness that philosopher described'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:55 AM on 6th July 2011
Rhesus monkeys appear to understand what Rene Descartes meant when he made the famous statement: ‘I think, therefore I am.’
They possess the same form of ‘cause and effect’ self-awareness the 17th century French philosopher was grappling with, scientists believe.
Like humans, they have a sense of ‘self-agency’ which traces thoughts and actions to the existence of ‘me’.
Thinkers: Rhesus monkeys are believed to possess the same form of ‘cause and effect’ self-awareness that French philosopher Rene Descartes grappled with
Previous research had found that rhesus monkeys consistently fail in an important test of self-awareness, the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror.
However, like apes and dolphins they did seem to be able to monitor their own mental states.
For the new study, scientists got 40 university students and four trained male rhesus monkeys to move a computer cursor with a joystick. As they were doing this, a second ‘distractor’ cursor partially matched their movements.
Both humans and monkeys were asked to identify which computer cursor was being moved by them and responding to their intentions.
In both cases, they were able to select the cursor they controlled at greater than chance levels.
‘This suggests that the monkeys, like humans, have some understanding of self-agency,’ said psychologist Justin Couchman, from the University at Buffalo in the US, who led the research.
‘This awareness, or implicit sense that it is 'me' who is presently executing a bodily movement or thinking thoughts, is an important form of self-awareness.’
The study, reported today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, is the first to demonstrate self-agency in a species that has not passed the mirror self-recognition test.
The findings may improve understanding of self-awareness problems in people with conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
‘Mirror self-recognition is developmentally delayed in autistic children and absent in many who are mentally retarded, have Alzheimer's disease or are schizophrenic,’ said Mr Couchman.
‘It is not clear why this deficit occurs, but like rhesus monkeys, these groups may simply have biases against mirrors.
‘If, when studied, such individuals attempted to distinguish self-generated actions from partially altered actions in the paradigm reported in this study, it might offer information as to whether the breakdown in their mirror self-recognition is due to a difficulty in processing certain kinds of perceptual or cognitive information.’
WHO WAS DESCARTES?
Rene Descartes is often described by academics as the Father of Modern Philosophy.
The Frenchman, born in 1596, was the first thinker to develop the idea of emotions, a concept that we now consider essential to the human condition.
He was a major figure in 17th-century European rationalism, the idea that knowledge can be obtained by reason alone – as opposed to religious revelation.
He is perhaps best known for the Latin statement ‘Cogito ergo sum’. It translates into English as ‘I think, therefore I am’,or ‘I am thinking, therefore I exist’, or ‘I do think, therefore I do exist’.
Descartes' is also a major influence in mathematics.
He developed the Cartesian coordinate system, allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes.
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