Clever Hans (the horse of Mr. Von Osten) : a contribution to experimental animal and human psychology / by Oskar Pfungst ; translated from the German by Carl L. Rahn.
- Oskar Pfungst
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Clever Hans (the horse of Mr. Von Osten) : a contribution to experimental animal and human psychology / by Oskar Pfungst ; translated from the German by Carl L. Rahn. Source: Wellcome Collection.
32/300 page 18
![psychology. The one seeks to remove the animal psyche farther away from the human, the other tries to bring the two closer together. It is undoubtedly true that many acts of the lowei forms reveal nothing of the nature of conceptual thinking. But that others might thus be interpreted cannot be denied. But need they be thus in- terpreted ?—There lies the dispute. A single incontrovert- ible fact which would fulfil this demand, [i.e., proof of conceptual thinking], would, at a stroke, decide the ques- tion in favor of those who ascribe the power of thought to the lower forms. At last the thing so long sought for, was apparently found: A horse that could solve arithmetical problems— an animal which, thanks to long training, mastered not merely rudiments, but seemingly arrived at a power of abstract thought and which surpassed, by far, the highest expectations of the greatest enthusiast. And now what was it that this wonderful horse could do? The reader may accompany us to an exhibition which was given daily before a select Company at about the noon hour in a paved courtyard surrounded by high apartment houses in the northern part of Berlin. No fee was ever taken. The visitor might walk about freely and if he wished, might closely approach the horse and its master, a man between sixty and seventy years of age. His white head was covered with a black, slouch hat. To his left the stately animal, a Russian trotting horse, stood like a docile pupil, managed not by means of the whip, but by gentle encouragement and frequent reward of bread or carrots. He would answer correctly, nearly all of the questions which were put to him in German. If he understood a question, he immediately indicated this by a nod of the head; if he failed to grasp its im-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28061251_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
