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Full Idea
The sequences of the brutes are but a shadow of reasoning, that is to say, they are but connexions of imagination, transitions from one image to another.
Gist of Idea
Animal thought is a shadow of reasoning, connecting sequences of images by imagination
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], Pref)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.152
A Reaction
This account of animal thought cannot capture the fact that they are motivated by their images, and obviously make decisions based on them. Externally, there is usually an obvious reason why even an insect does something.
| 20916 | Animals have a share of reason [Democritus, by Porphyry] |
| 1875 | Dogs show reason in decisions made by elimination [Chrysippus, by Sext.Empiricus] |
| 3615 | Little reason is needed to speak, so animals have no reason at all [Descartes] |
| 17204 | Animals are often observed to be wiser than people [Spinoza] |
| 12483 | Unlike humans, animals cannot entertain general ideas [Locke] |
| 5061 | Animals are semi-rational because they connect facts, but they don't see causes [Leibniz] |
| 5054 | Animal thought is a shadow of reasoning, connecting sequences of images by imagination [Leibniz] |
| 5032 | It seems probable that animals have souls, but not consciousness [Leibniz] |
| 6713 | If animals have ideas, and are not machines, they must have some reason [Berkeley] |
| 19220 | We may think animals reason very little, but they hardly ever make mistakes! [Peirce] |
| 22651 | Dogs' curiosity only concerns what will happen next [James] |
| 4908 | No one knows if animals are conscious [Carter,R] |