Folk Physics for Apes: The Chimpanzee's theory of how the world works
Daniel Povinelli
Abstract
From an early age, humans know a surprising amount about basic physical principles, such as gravity, force, mass, and shape. We can see this in the way that young children play and manipulate objects around them. The same behavior has long been observed in primates — chimpanzees have been shown to possess a remarkable ability to make and use simple tools. But what does this tell us about their inner mental state — do they therefore share the same understanding to that of a young child? Do they understand the simple, underlying physical principles involved? Though some people would say that the ... More
From an early age, humans know a surprising amount about basic physical principles, such as gravity, force, mass, and shape. We can see this in the way that young children play and manipulate objects around them. The same behavior has long been observed in primates — chimpanzees have been shown to possess a remarkable ability to make and use simple tools. But what does this tell us about their inner mental state — do they therefore share the same understanding to that of a young child? Do they understand the simple, underlying physical principles involved? Though some people would say that they do, this book reports groundbreaking research that questions whether this really is the case. Challenging the assumptions so often made about apes, it offers us a rare glimpse into the workings of another mind, examining how apes perceive and understand the physical world — an understanding that appears to be both similar to, and yet profoundly different from our own.
Keywords:
behavior,
primates,
chimpanzees,
inner mental state,
physical principles,
gravity,
force,
shape,
young children,
simple tools
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2003 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198572190 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198572190.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Daniel Povinelli, author
Co-Director, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
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