Abstract

In this article, Susanne Langer’s and Antonio Damasio’s theories are presented as candidates for the validation, both scientific and philosophical, of two different perspectives conceming the complexity of the animal mind. Despite their initial agreement about which kind of animais are incapable of producing mental activity, they diverge when it cornes to the study of more developed animals, namely mammals. The present article sides with Damasio against Langer: Langer rejects the idea of ascribing to any animal complex human mental capacities ; in turn, Damasio’s neurobiological theory gives us good reasons to attribute these same capacities to, at least, some species of mammals.