: A summer on the borders of the Caribbean sea. by Harris J Dennis - Caribbean Area Description and travel

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PAGE PREFATORY NOTE v

INTRODUCTION 1

CONCLUSION 240

SUPPLEMENTS:

TABLE OF REFERENCES 267

INTRODUCTION

A horse that solves correctly problems in multiplication and division by means of tapping. Persons of unimpeachable honor, who in the master's absence have received responses, and assure us that in the process they have not made even the slightest sign. Thousands of spectators, horse-fanciers, trick-trainers of first rank, and not one of them during the course of many months' observations are able to discover any kind of regular signal.

That was the riddle. And its solution was found in the unintentional minimal movements of the horse's questioner.

Simple though it may seem, the history of the solution is nevertheless quite complex, and one of the important incidents in it is the appearance of the zo?logist and African traveler, Schillings, upon the scene, and then there is the report of the so-called Hans-Commission of September 12, 1904. And finally there is the scientific investigation, the results of which were published in my report of December 9, 1904.

Of course, to many persons in the interested public the result was merely that Schillings, also, was placed in the category of deceivers. On the other hand there were reputable scientists who could not dispose of the matter in that fashion, and these now openly took their stand with Schillings and declared that they believed in the horse's ability to think. Zo?logists especially, saw in von Osten's results evidence of the essential similarity between the human and the animal mind, which doctrine has been coming more and more into favor since the time of Darwin. Educators were disposed to be convinced, on account of the clever systematic method of instruction which had been used and which had not, till then, been applied in the education of a horse. In addition, there were many details which, it seemed, could not be explained in any other way. So far as I myself was concerned, I was ready to change my views with regard to the nature of animal consciousness, as soon as a careful examination would show that nothing else would explain the facts, except the assumption of the presence of conceptual thinking. I had thought out the process hypothetically, i. e., how one might conceive of the rise of number concepts and arithmetical calculation along the peculiar lines which had been followed in Hans's education, and on the basis of the assumption that the beginnings of conceptual thinking are present in animals. Also, I had too much faith in human nature to fear lest nothing peculiarly human should remain after the art of handling numbers should be shown to be common property with the lower forms. But under no circumstances would I have undertaken to make a public statement in favor of any particular view in this extraordinary case, before a thorough investigation, in accordance with scientific principles, had been made. I expressed this sentiment at the time, and recommended the appointment of an investigating commission .

The purpose of this commission was misunderstood, and therefore many were disappointed with the report which it published, . Some had been expecting a positive conclusive explanation; the commission recommended further investigation. Some had asked for a solution of the question whether or not the horse was able to think; the commission maintained neither the one, nor the other. Some had indicated as the main condition of a satisfactory investigation, that both Mr. von Osten and Mr. Schillings be excluded from the tests; this was not done.

To be sure the commission did go one step beyond that which it had proposed to itself, since it added that it believed that unintentional signs of the kind which are at present familiar, were also excluded. This led many to the unwarranted conclusion that the commission had declared that Hans was able to think. Whereas the thing which might have been logically suggested was that instead of the assumption of the presence of independent thinking, the commission may have had in mind unintentional signs of a kind hitherto unknown. I explained this to a reporter of the "Frankfurter Zeitung" , who had come to me for information, and in his article he made this hypothesis appear as the most probable one. Certain statements of the circus-manager Busch, who speaks of a 'connection' of some sort, go to show that other members of the commission held to the view just stated.

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