# Can cow think **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727 "2011-08-14T22:40:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TonKa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@TonKa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonKa)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/1 "2011-08-14T22:40:52Z")
When I look at them, I don’t think so, but on the contrary, they do have brains :dubious: And if they can think, what are they thinking all day? By the way, I am new here and just discovering your message board. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/2 "2011-08-14T22:51:31Z")
All animals think. Cows think of how the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/3 "2011-08-14T22:56:02Z")
It’s broader than just the subject of whether cows can think, but you might check out Wikipedia’s article on [animal cognition.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_cognition) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/4 "2011-08-14T23:05:24Z")
> [@](#): > > All animals think. Well, not sponges, and probably not most coelenterates. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/5 "2011-08-14T23:09:56Z")
Yes, they can think. Even worse…they can plot. [http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/ck/k6/6x/tting.gif](http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/ck/k6/6x/tting.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/6 "2011-08-14T23:55:39Z")
Can poster write? I keed, I keed! I presume that cows think about their next meal, reproducing, and not much else. And welcome to the Dope 😉 Joe ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/7 "2011-08-15T00:12:17Z")
Not very fair to the cattle, as we have been breeding them dumb and docile for centuries. Wild aurochs were apparently smart enough to be damned dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/8 "2011-08-15T00:13:35Z")
You may be interested in a fairly classic philosophy essay on a related subject: [Thomas Nagel’s 1973 “What’s It Like To Be a Bat?”](http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/nagel.htm). > [@](#): > > … So if extrapolation from our own case is involved in the idea of what it is like to be a bat, the extrapolation must be incompletable. We cannot form more than a schematic conception of what it is like. For example, we may ascribe general types of experience on the basis of the animal’s structure and behavior. Thus we describe bat sonar as a form of three-dimensional forward perception; we believe that bats feel some versions of pain, fear, hunger, and lust, and that they have other, more familiar types of perception besides sonar. But we believe that these experiences also have in each case a specific subjective character, which it is beyond our ability to conceive. And if there’s conscious life elsewhere in the universe, it is likely that some of it will not be describable even in the most general experiential terms available to us. … The fact that we cannot expect ever to accommodate in our language a detailed description of Martian or bat phenomenology should not lead us to dismiss as meaningless the claim that bats and Martians have experiences fully comparable in richness of detail to our own. It would be fine if someone were to develop concepts and a theory that enabled us to think about those things; but such an understanding may be permanently denied to us by the limits of our nature. And to deny the reality or logical significance of what we can never describe or understand is the crudest form of cognitive dissonance. … Do cows have some level of cognition, of intelligence, that is, can they solve novel problems of salience and learn new behaviors? Yes. Do they experience some sort of qualia, experience perceptions and desires? One reasonably assumes so, but as Nagle points out, our tools for describing what that might be are limited. Do they experience themselves observing themselves, have sentience, consciousness, or self-awareness, in the sense that we do? An interesting question but more of a Great Debate (GD) one than one for General Questions (GQ). If consciousness is, as some experts believe, a result of nested self-referential informational processing loops (see, for example, Doug Hofstadter’s [strange loop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop) concept) then how much nesting is needed before we call it “sentience”? And how do you measure it? Sponges no. Fish? Octopuses? Cows? Do we define by how much like us they are? Welcome! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/9 "2011-08-15T01:34:10Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yes, they can think. > > Even worse…they can plot. > > [http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/ck/k6/6x/tting.gif](http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/ck/k6/6x/tting.gif) Proof that they’re stupid cows. Everyone knows that the head is the best part. ---
**Author:** ![TonKa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@TonKa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonKa)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/10 "2011-08-15T08:38:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Can poster write? English is not my native tongue (I am from Holland) and I guess my English is far better then your Dutch. Thanks for the warm welcome 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/11 "2011-08-15T09:34:47Z")
[Cows with guns.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI) ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/12 "2011-08-15T10:10:51Z")
> [@TonKa](#): > > English is not my native tongue (I am from Holland) and **I guess my English is far better then your Dutch.** > > Thanks for the warm welcome 😉 Zing! 😃 Welcome. Cows can [be taught tricks](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM8dTVkRz1M). ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/13 "2011-08-15T12:56:38Z")
they’re not _that_ far removed from African Buffalo, which are quite vicious when necessary and can [work together to rescue a member of their herd.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM) Even though- as **DrFidelius** says- we’ve been breeding them to be docile, I’m certain they’re _capable_ of some level of cognition. Though I think they just don’t give a crap. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/14 "2011-08-15T13:27:21Z")
> [@TonKa](#): > > English is not my native tongue (I am from Holland) and I guess my English is far better then your Dutch. I like you already! 😃 River: Little soul, big world. Eat, sleep, and eat. Many souls. Mal: Cattle on the ship three weeks, she don’t go near 'em. Suddenly we’re on Jianying, and she’s got a driving need to commune with the beasts? River: They weren’t cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky, and they remember what they are. Mal: Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me? /firefly ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/15 "2011-08-15T13:36:42Z")
Cows show fear, affection and other emotions. They can experience and avoid pain. So yes, cows can think. That being the case, how ought we to behave toward thinking beings? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/16 "2011-08-15T14:22:21Z")
Can a cow think! [Use your articles! And it’s not a cow, it’s a moose!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e47-DsegbcU) ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/17 "2011-08-15T14:24:56Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Cows show fear, affection and other emotions. They can experience and avoid pain. So yes, cows can think. > > That being the case, how ought we to behave toward thinking beings? other thinking beings don’t behave all that nicely to those thinking beings, so I’m not sure why we should be held to a certain standard. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/18 "2011-08-15T14:33:13Z")
Not only can they think, they [enjoy thinking about getting eaten.](http://www.saunalahti.fi/~huuhilo/dna2.html) ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/19 "2011-08-15T14:33:15Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > other thinking beings don’t behave all that nicely to those thinking beings, so I’m not sure why we should be held to a certain standard. Maybe because we have a higher level of awareness of the consequences of our behaviours? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727/20 "2011-08-15T14:35:12Z")
Here’s the thing about cows, steers and bulls. They are not very bright, but they do have all day. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cow-think/592727.md?page=2)