how does Robert bencley convince the readers that the insects can think?
Answers
The 1920s and 1930s gave rise to new forms of popular humor, humor with a sophisticated edge drawn from a more prosperous, cosmopolitan urban experience. In New York, a circle of urbane humorists with a national audience rose around the New Yorker magazine and the famous “Algonquin Round Table,” an informal group that met occasionally at the Algonquin Hotel. Ironic, witty, emphasizing word play and “in jokes,” the New Yorker work of Benchley, Thurber, Perelman, and Dorothy Parker satirized the pretensions of ordinary middle-class life. “Do Insects Think?,” a 1922 essay by Robert Benchley, gleefully mocked the pretentious tone of American science, as well as the cult of pep, productivity, and activity that characterized the 1920s. Doing nothing, it suggested, offered the best evidence of intelligence.
In a recent book entitled The Psychic Life of Insects, Professor Bouvier says that we must be careful not to credit the little winged fellows with intelligence when they behave in what seems like an intelligent manner. They may be only reacting. I would like to confront the Professor with an instance of reasoning power on the part of an insect which can not be explained away in any such manner.
During the summer of 1899, while I was at work on my treatise Do Larvae Laugh? we kept a female wasp at our cottage in the Adirondacks. It really was more like a child of our own than a wasp, except that it looked more like a wasp than a child of our own. That was one of the ways we told the difference.
It was still a young wasp when we got it (thirteen or fourteen years old) and for some time we could not get it to eat or drink, it was so shy. Since it was a female, we decided to call it Miriam, but soon the children’s nickname for it—“Pudge”—became a fixture, and “Pudge” it was from that time on.
One evening I had been working late in my laboratory fooling round with some gin and other chemicals, and in leaving the room I tripped over a nine of diamonds which someone had left lying on the floor and knocked over my card catalogue containing the names and addresses of all the larvae worth knowing in North America. The cards went everywhere.
Answer:
Robert Bentley convincingly argues that insects are capable of thinking in his essay "Do Insects Think?" by presenting evidence from both scientific studies and anecdotal observations.
Explanation:
He cites research that shows insects are capable of complex behaviors, such as spatial memory, problem-solving, and communication. He also notes that some insects demonstrate remarkable adaptability, learning from experience and modifying their behavior accordingly. These abilities suggest that insects are capable of more than just instinctual responses to stimuli, and may involve some degree of cognition.
Bentley also presents anecdotes and personal observations that illustrate the seemingly deliberate and intentional behavior of insects. For example, he describes how bees will sometimes take a circuitous route to return to their hive, suggesting that they are capable of planning and decision-making.
Through this combination of scientific research and anecdotal evidence, Bentley makes a compelling case that insects are capable of thinking, challenging the long-held assumption that they are simple automatons.
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