Larvae also aren't, as far as we can tell, learning much by way of experience in their larval stage, and while ants are probably semi-sentient, they are far far more hard-wired than humans. It's actually quite misleading to speak of them as "social" animals the way that humans and other primates or even pack animals like wolves or herd animals like sheep are social. And The Jungle Books aside, it's very questionable whether any non-primates have enough social complexity and neurological capacity to attain anything like what humans have in the way of self-consciousness. They may have some, if you buy Hegel's account of the early state of S-C as the self absorbing its object by literally eating it, but not much more than that.
--- Charles Brown <charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> wrote:
>
>
>
> Baby ants are totally helpless larvae that are
> tended
> by specialist nursing ants. They can't even move.
>
> ^^^^
> CB: And they aren't babies nearly as long as humans
> are, right ?
>
> ^^^^
>
> In fact now that I think of it IIRC juvenile ants
> develop into whatever caste they develop into based
> on
> the current needs of the colony. Not only is their
> behavior socially determined, their very biology is!
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Needs ? Biological needs, right ?
>
> (Yoo-hoo, Jerry Monaco...)
>
> --
>
> > Charles Brown charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
>
>
> Ants are social for non-human animals, but not more
> social than
> humans. An ant can function almost from birth. A
> human cannot function
> on its own at birth. It need social care more than a
> baby ant.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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