The Aesop's fable paradigm : an unlikely intersection of folklore and science / edited by K. Brandon Barker, Daniel J. Povinelli.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Barker, K. Brandon, editor.

Povinelli, Daniel J., editor.

Series:

Encounters (Bloomington, Ind.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cognition in animals.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (259 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2021]

Summary:

The Aesop's Fable Paradigm is a collection of essays that explore the cutting-edge intersection of Folklore and Science. From moralizing fables to fantastic folktales, humans have been telling stories about animals-animals who can talk, feel, think, and make moral judgments just as we do-for a very long time. In contrast, scientific studies of the mental lives of animals have professed to be investigating the nature of animal minds slowly, cautiously, objectively, with no room for fanciful tales, fables, or myths.But recently, these folkloric and scientific traditions have merged in an unexpected and shocking way: scientists have attempted to prove that at least some animal fables are actually true. These interdisciplinary chapters examine how science has targeted the well-known Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Pitcher" as their starting point. They explore the ever-growing set of experimental studies which purport to prove that crows possess an understanding of higher-order concepts like weight, mass, and even Archimedes' insight about the physics of water displacement. The Aesop's Fable Paradigm explores how these scientific studies are doomed to accomplish little more than to mirror anthropomorphic representations of animals in human folklore and reveal that the problem of folkloric projection extends far beyond the "Aesop's Fable Paradigm" into every nook and cranny of research on animal cognition.

Contents:

1. The Animal Question as Folklore in Science / K. Brandon Barker

2. The Early Tradition of the Crow and the Pitcher / William Hansen

3. Going Meta: Retelling the Scientific Retelling of Aesop's the Crow and the Pitcher / Daniel J. Povinelli

4. Anthropomorphomania and the Rise of the Animal Mind: A Conversation / Daniel J. Povinelli

5. Fabling Gestures in Expository Science / Gregory Schrempp.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-253-05923-2

0-253-05924-0

OCLC:

1281987046