Is it reasonable to think that animals have self awareness?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MindOverMatter2
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Well, to answer the question you pose in your thread title:

Yes, it would be reasonable to think that animals have self awareness, but that doesn’t make it true.

My cat may fight off large raccoons, as he did last night, but he cannot figure out that he cannot go through a closed glass sliding door to get to the raccoons. He cannot imagine the future, he cannot foresee his own death. I highly doubt that after all these years he remembers his birth mother, either. He does not comtemplate heaven or hell, or the consequences of his actions. If he could, he would stop eating so fast and losing his dinner promptly.

Now, you could say all this is true of a person who is severely retarded, or suffers from senility. However, we know from God that a human has a soul that is in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, we must treat a human being with more respect, and awe, than we do any animal, even a highly intelligent animal. An animal has a spirit, and as stewards of animals, we must treat them all with dignity and respect, even our food animals. However, they are not on the same level with humans–never.
 
Whenever my cat does something stupid, she immediately looks around to see if anyone saw her, so she can decide how embarrassed to be.
 
My dog is aware of two things, food and the possibility of getting a belly rub.
 
nonanon said:
Far more interesting, I think, are the primates that recognize themselves in mirrors, have learned sign language, and recognize human spoken English.
Click to expand...
And not just primates. Elephants and dolphins also seem to be self-aware.

While members of the crow family haven’t displayed that particular characteristic, they may be among the smartest of animals.

pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/full-episode/5977/

livescience.com/4272-elephant-awareness-mirrors-humans.html
 
Just_Lurking said:
Whenever my cat does something stupid, she immediately looks around to see if anyone saw her, so she can decide how embarrassed to be.
Click to expand...
One of my uncles told of seeing a young gull on his first flight. He underestimated his speed as he tried to land on a boulder on the beach. His feet caught it but he kept going tumbling over into the sand. He got up, looked around to see if anyone was watching, shook off the sand and walked off as though that was just what he had intended to do. .
 
cornbread_r2 said:
And not just primates. Elephants and dolphins also seem to be self-aware.

While members of the crow family haven’t displayed that particular characteristic, they may be among the smartest of animals.

pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/full-episode/5977/

livescience.com/4272-elephant-awareness-mirrors-humans.html
Click to expand...
I saw that show about the intelligence of crows. Quite remarkable. I believe researchers have found that elephants–unlike chimps and dolphins–have a sense of their own mortality as shown by the behavioral rituals preceding their death. Whether this indicates higher-order cognitive self-awareness or is a product of natural instinct, common to other animals and insects, is debatable.
 
meltzerboy said:
I saw that show about the intelligence of crows. Quite remarkable. I believe researchers have found that elephants–unlike chimps and dolphins–have a sense of their own mortality as shown by the behavioral rituals preceding their death. Whether this indicates higher-order cognitive self-awareness or is a product of natural instinct, common to other animals and insects, is debatable.
Click to expand...
I don’t know about elephants having a sense of mortality or what behavioral rituals you’re referring to. I was just commenting per the OP about their apparent ability to recognize themselves in mirrors. I do know that at one time self-recognition, tools use and language (in the broad sense) were thought to be abilities unique to humans. Nowadays it seems that maybe the only thing that separates us exclusively is that we’re the only species that isn’t afraid of vacuum cleaners. 😉
 
cornbread_r2 said:
I don’t know about elephants having a sense of mortality or what behavioral rituals you’re referring to. I was just commenting per the OP about their apparent ability to recognize themselves in mirrors. I do know that at one time self-recognition, tools use and language (in the broad sense) were thought to be abilities unique to humans. Nowadays it seems that maybe the only thing that separates us exclusively is that we’re the only species that isn’t afraid of vacuum cleaners. 😉
Click to expand...
Researchers in animal cognition have found that higher primates have mirror self-recognition, as you state. Actually, I wasn’t aware elephants also have that ability; but I did hear about their ability to understand their own mortality. Unfortunately, I don’t have the specific details handy.

Talking about fear of vacuum cleaners, there is in fact a documented case of a woman who had a vacuum-cleaner phobia! I learned about this as a psychology graduate student many years ago. It’s always sounded suspicious to me.
 
meltzerboy said:
Researchers in animal cognition have found that higher primates have mirror self-recognition, as you state. Actually, I wasn’t aware elephants also have that ability; but I did hear about their ability to understand their own mortality. Unfortunately, I don’t have the specific details handy.

Talking about fear of vacuum cleaners, there is in fact a documented case of a woman who had a vacuum-cleaner phobia! I learned about this as a psychology graduate student many years ago. It’s always sounded suspicious to me.
Click to expand...
On page one I asked what was meant by “self awareness”, but no-one responded. You, Meltzerboy, are writing about self-recognition. A scoot around the Internet shows us that the so called “mirror test” used on animals, even higher functioning animals, is a learned thing. We can also learn that human infants when first shown their reflection in a mirror do not realise that they are looking at themselves. One article I read said that 18 months is about the average “mirror test passing age”. If that’s the case, self recognition is a leaned behavioural response.

However, babies younger than 18 months show signs of reacting to danger and becoming cautious. One experiment I read a while ago had babies being encouraged to crawl out over a piece of glass that was suspended off the ground. Once the babies realised that they were venturing out over a drop, many froze and tried to retreat. Yet, these babies of that age would still not recognise themselves in the mirror and would react as they would upon seeing a stranger.

So, my conclusion is that self recognition and self awareness are not the same thing.

The babies on the suspended glass are reacting to something which they feel threatens them, so they must have some sense of themselves. Even Primates who fail the mirror test will still take measures in the wild to protect themselves from possible harm, so they too must have a sense of themselves and of the possibility of harm to themselves.

However, even slugs and snails and insects also show signs of protecting themselves from possible harm. Do they have, therefore, a sense of self awareness? Is self awareness in its most basic form manifest as a self protection reflex?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top