Do monkeys and apes have minds?

Question

Do monkeys and apes have minds?

Answer 1

hit one and see if they mind.

Answer 2

I think you are asking about primate intellectual capacity.  Primates are much more intelligent than they are given credit for.  

Most monkeys operate in large social groups.  They must read and maneuver within complex social systems daily.  They communicate via verbal and non-verbal cues.  They also recognize other individual monkeys.  They are capable of learning new information rapidly.  There have even been cases when they passed it on to offspring and other members of their group.  One case in Japan comes to mind.    A troop of macaques on an island started washing their yams in the ocean.  This seasoned them with salt.  The taste was so pleasing to the animals that the whole troop began doing it.

Apes have an even greater intellectual capacity.  Some have been taught sign language (Washoe, KOKO etc).  Their is still some debate whether they have truly acquired language but they have been seen to teach their offspring to sign.  Goodall and others have reported what appears to be mourning when a death occurs.  There is also evidence in chimpanzees that self-recognition occurs when they look in the mirror.

Answer 3

Of course they do. Apes are generally just as intelligent as a 3 or 4 year old human. They are known to have a sense of humor, can learn sign language, and are capable of smiling. All of these traits are signs of intelligence.

Answer 4

Um duh all animals have minds

Answer 5

comparative brain anatomy throughout the animal kingdom:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/C...

http://departments.colgate.edu/neuroscie...

http://williamcalvin.com/LEM/LEMch5.htm

Here's a book that might interest you?  It deals with the brain and cognitive differences between Humans and apes.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/def...

Dealing purely with cognitive abilities in Apes, yerkes primate research ceter and the Great Ape Trust would be the best place to start, notably with the works of Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Dr. Duane Rumbaugh:

http://www.greatapetrust.org/research/sr...

http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?he...

http://www.americanscientist.org/BookRev...

http://www.greatapetrust.org/research/bo...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

http://www.greatapetrust.org/media/relea...

Related works on ape cognitive abilities:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/2006...

http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/833...

Answer 6

Yes, echoing what others have said here.

Frans de Waal reports a bonobo in the group he studies showing empathy - it took the hand of another, slower bonobo to help him along a corridor - meaning that this chimp understood that the other one was in need of assistance and that he could help.

Answer 7

Yes ,, They are usually elected president.

Answer 8

What a stupid question.  All living creatures have minds.

Answer 9

Do monkeys and apes have minds. They have brains, of course, and some top research has been in place for awhile to explore their cognitive, social, and 'reasoning' abilities--especially apes.