I’m not well informed on this issue, and it makes my head hurt thinking about it.
are self-awareness and emotions linked together? can you have one without the other? i was reading the thread about emotions vs. reason, and it got me thinking: why do animals not show emotions to the same extent as humans do? just because we have a higher mental capacity, that doesn’t mean that we in turn think using both reason and emotions.
people think much more beyond their survival, and sometimes even beyond self interest. and the only overall difference between people and animals(that i know of) is self awareness. is there anything i’m missing?
They said animals were less intelligent than we are, that they don’t think in the same sense that we think. Hmm, OK, that’s reasonable, don’t see them inventing electricity or putting on complex theatrical performances, although sometimes I wonder if those aren’t extremely human endeavors rather than specifically intelligent endeavors… and my pets have seemed cognizant and aware…but OK…
Then they said animals didn’t have feelings to the extent that we do, that they don’t have the same emotional depth and richness of texture that we feel. Ummm…now why would anyone reach that conclusion? I suspect that they don’t dwell on things over so long a time frame, since if we assume they are not verbal they may feel a certain way about me but they’re less likely to feel a certain way about the way I feel about how my girlfriend feels about her mom, if you catch my drift. But the basics of joy, anger, smug contentment, giddy playfulness, sadness, frustration, jealousy, pride, shame, etc…
Then they said animals don’t have sensations to the extent that we do, that they don’t actually feel pain and other sensory feelings like we have. Huh? Excuse me?? To be sure, “they” are not always the same people, but all these claims are just tossed out there as if they were self-evident and already established, and the more I listen to them the more they all kind of roll up into one ball of “animals are just kind of less ‘there’ than us”.
I might agree with your conclusion but the premise on which it’s based is IMO out to lunch.
Probably because the human brain is fine-tuned to detect subtle emotional shifts in other humans, but not in other animals. The emotions may be there, we just can’t see them.
I agree. I have kept pets, cats, and a few dogs all my life. Animals are self-aware and have emotions the same as humans. They also have distinct personalities, likes and dislikes. I even doubt they are less intelligent, you don’t see many animals ingaged in self-defeating behavior like you do humans. People that abuse them, or experiment on them are the very lowest ones in the intelligent scale.
