Are animals just machines?

Are animals just machines? [Descartes]

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In his letter to the Marquis of Newcastle, Descartes, the famous philosopher of the 17th century states that animal reactions are explained by the activation of automatic mechanisms that respond to external signals.

In the context of scientific revolutions from Copernicus to Galileo, Descartes rejects ancient doctrines and develops a heliocentric cosmology, with the sun as its center. The philosopher considers that the laws of nature are immutable. Assuming divine immutability, he concludes that God maintains the world as he created it. “ God makes nature work “or God” always works the same way “, so the rules are unchanged. Thus, the world is governed by permanent laws that guarantee physical rules. in other words, the world responds to God’s dictated mechanism.

In this groove, Descartes thus affirms that the animal is a kind of perfected machine. Undoubtedly, it has an instinct, but a purely mechanical moment.

For Descartes, an animal has neither soul nor intelligence. He responds” automatically incentives. It is an integrally determined creature designed by the model of a mechanical system.

“I know well, writes Descartes, that animals do many things better than us, but I am not surprised. for this in itself serves to prove that they act naturally and springily, like a clock, which tells the time far better than our judgment teaches us.

Letter to the Marquess of Newcastle

When Descartes wrote this letter to the Marquess of Newcastle on November 23, 1646, the first articulated dolls were created. While they amaze young and old, Descartes believes that there is no ontological difference between these artifacts and animals, which are mere machines. The difference is only in their development.

Animals, like any machine, are combinations of parts that form joints, without feelings or thoughts.

Maybe you know the Vaucanson duck.

Jacques de Vaucanson was a philosopher and mechanic, a member of the Academy of Sciences and patronized by King Louis XV. He designs automated machines such as looms, but also robots.

Around 1740 he created a very elaborate copper duck. that digestive duckr would be able to babble, drink, eat and digest… like a real animal.

This automaton was probably the best example of Descartes’ living-machine theory. Today there are only its drawings, because in the 19th century it had to be destroyed by fire.

Descartes’ mechanistic perspective applies to the entire animal world.

What makes man different from the rest of the animal world?

Descartes thinks of a profound break between humans and animals—a metaphysical difference between them and us.

Descartes will clearly say that man is closer to God than animals. Unlike animals, humans have minds and languages. He has a soul and a reason. He is free and bears the mark of God’s infinity. Both man and animal are finite, but man is not pure finitude.

Who today thinks that an animal is not a sentient being that has the capacity to feel and express emotions? At least not science.