Cartographic systems and animal inference

AGUILERA MARIELA

Londres

Encuentro; 2012-Meeting of the European Society of Philosophy and Psychology; 2012

European Society of Philosophy and Psychology & London University

Cognitive ethologists and comparative psychologists often assume that non human animals are capable of making inferences. But a wide philosophical tradition has supposed that the capability to making inferences require some kind of language. Against these assumptions, I claim that inferential abilities do not necessarily require a language. In contrast, certain cartographic systems could be used to explain some forms of inferences. Despite their differences, maps as well as sentences are capable of warranting rational relations between contents they represent. Moreover, maps are appropriated to explain some features of animal reasoning.