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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: should exist in any machine a diversity of organs sufficient to enable it
to act in all the occurrences of life, in the way in which our reason
enables us to act. Again, by means of these two tests we may likewise know
the difference between men and brutes. For it is highly deserving of
remark, that there are no men so dull and stupid, not even idiots, as to
be incapable of joining together different words, and thereby constructing
a declaration by which to make their thoughts understood; and that on the
other hand, there is no other animal, however perfect or happily
circumstanced, which can do the like. Nor does this inability arise from
want of organs: for we observe that magpies and parrots can utter words
like ourselves, and are yet unable to speak as we do, that is, so as to
Reason Discourse |
