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Descartes Essay

Descartes is known as the father of modern philosophy, yet he is often ridiculed for his views on animals. Descartes argues that animals might act as if they are capable of conscious thought but are in fact not, and by extension he uses this to attempt to prove that animals lack souls.

Descartes believed that free will was a requirement for a soul, and the high degree of perfection displayed in some animals' actions pointed towards a lack of free will. Even though a clock can perfectly keep time, it obviously has no free will or soul and is ruled by its function. Therefore, the ability of an animal to complete complex tasks in no way proves the existence of a soul, and shows that animals are ruled by their instincts. In other words, Descartes feels that animals are ruled by their function. In addition, Descartes uses the superiority of animals in some areas to his advantage by highlighting the alteration between seemingly brilliant moves and rather stupid ones. Animals do some things skillfully, Descartes says, because they are equipped for those things with instincts that do not aid them in different circumstances.

For example, a beaver may be better at construction than a student of engineering. According to Descartes, if this excellence was due to intelligence alone, the beaver should outperform the engineering student in nearly everything. This is obviously not the case, and the beaver's skills, therefore, are not related to his intelligence. His great skill comes from instinct alone, and not intelligence.

Descartes preferred to explain animal behavior by using the simplest possible explanation. He believed that all of animal behavior could be explained in mechanical terms, and therefore no reference to consciousness was required for such an explanation. Since it is possible to explain animal behavior