11

πλ
11

essential nature of thought. Those whom we hear all-confidently
asserting that anything like reasoning is a phenomenon peculiar
to human consciousness or to the specific type of consciousness to
which the human variety appertains, have not sufficiently
considered the subject, and in particular fail to recognize
that the question is not what happens to be extant but what
the essential nature of reasoning allows. What exists is no proof
of what must be; but it is certainly conclusive in affirming a may
be. The honey bee's solution of the problem of isoperimetry
suffices to show that human consciousness is not indispensible
for the virtual accomplishment of inference; and it is amusing
to note how vastly those who seek to belittle this instance really
aggrandize it by showing that the bee simply does what it is