Let me ask you: what would you call this response - if it is not âtrulyâ pain or pleasure? For humans it is also âhard-wiredâ stimulus-response, isnât it? If you burn a toddler, who is not self-aware, will it not react identially?
There is no doubt that a human and animal will act identically because both are hard wired in similar ways, but this is below the level of consciousness. So even though we react in the same way because of the âhard-wiring,â that does not entail that animals also have the capacity to be aware of pain, that may be a strictly human characteristic, although the automatic response may be shared by both.
By the way this supports my point that one not need be conscious of pain to howl or cry. These may be simple automatic responses built into the physiology of even young âsubâ conscious humans, to alert parents and others in the clan, rather than because pain is being consciously experienced by the sufferer.
Humans are also able to perform abstract thinking. We call that self-awareness, the conscious differentiation between the âIâ and the ânot-Iâ. Animals (mostly) are unable to do so - as far as we know it today.
I would argue that abstract thinking is different than consciousness or awareness. A computer may be capable of comparing the similarities and differences between âchunks of dataâ presented and thereby abstract common characteristics to make âselectionsâ from programmed possibilities based upon the properties or similarities that were âabstractedâ from the data. This may not require consciousness, although you seem to think it does â I donât.
In fact, as I stated before, it may be possible for some animals like dolphins, orcas, even gorillas to be more âintelligentâ than some humans because they have been programmed to think âabstractly.â However, consciousness, may be a completely different capability. I can imagine a state of being âconscious,â on a level of merely experiencing the world, without being able to comprehend or know it â a state of pure awareness, without intelligent understanding of how particular things are significant or related.
However, self-consciousness is probably not a binary variable (either exists or does not) - rather a continuous one. We can surmise that animals have a lower level of self-consciousness - depending on the complexity of the brain. For atheists, who do not believe in an âimmaterial soulâ this presents no problem. For theists, it might.
Again I would argue that the apparently âcontinuousâ aspect of consciousness may be the role intelligence and memory play in supporting knowledge about the world and our capacity to understand it. This may in fact be different than pure âawarenessâ which may in fact be a binary capacity engendered by the kind of âsoulâ in human beings.
The world - as it is - is different. Humans, who are biologically also predators, must âpreyâ on other forms of life in order to fulfill the biological necessity to survive. This is why most people feel no âmoralâ objections against the killing and consuming animals. Though they usually insist that this process be conducted as painlessly and humanely as possible.
Regardless of what humans think about this, the difficulty comes to play if animals actually are consciously aware of pain in the same way humans are. This fact, in and of itself, would make killing of animals en par with killing of humans, because this is the relevant difference that makes unjust killing of humans immoral: the fact that we are consciously aware. If you claim that animals are also conscious in the same way, then, it seems to me, you are compelled to treat them morally in the same way that human ethics prohibit unjust killing of humans.
This is not agreeable. The predators are not aware that they actually cause pain. Their brain is not developed enough to do so. To be aware the causing of pain is abstract thinking. That is the reason why we do not assign a âmoralâ label to a cat which âplaysâ with a mouse, but we would do it if a human would engage in such practices.
Again,
IF you are going to argue that animals are consciously aware of pain, I would argue that some animals, like dolphins, orcas, gorillas may in fact be as intelligent as some humans and therefore the conditions for holding these animals ethically accountable seem to apply, i.e., they can abstract the experience of pain and know they are causing it to another.
In addition, whether they are developed enough to comprehend their deed, it seems that if any animal is killing or attacking another that is capable of pain âconsciousness,â then the predator must be stopped even if it could not be held morally accountable, but simply because the consequences are âpainâ inducing to one so capable.
Let me point out one more thing: when you speak of âhard-wiredâ, it indicates to me âinstinctâ, which is truly âbuilt-inâ into the fabric of the neural systemâŚ
Higher animals with a cerebral cortex (which includes humans) are different. Their instinctive behavior is only a small part of the full amount of knowledge they need during their life⌠Most of our knowledge is learned, which necessitates a much higher level of complexity or awareness.
What of cats that can find their way to a new home of their owners across the country? Or salmon that return to their exact place of hatching after years out at sea? Is this behaviour instinctive or âabstract?â Does it involve conscious awareness? Does it need to? I can think of many humans, myself included who couldnât navigate our way out of our own socks without written directions; consciousness notwithstanding.
When the problem of pain is concerned, the ability of abstract thinking of humans - which seems to be missing from the animals is not a primary concern - in my opinion. The physiological âwiringâ is the same in humans as it is in animals with a cerebral cortex. To me that is the pertinant fact.
I agree that abstract thinking is not critical, for the reasons I mentioned above. I do not think abstract thinking is necessary for consciousness. They are different capacities. However, I do believe the fact of conscious awareness is precisely the characteristic which makes awareness of pain possible, regardless of whether a creature can think abstractly or not.
(Be as it may, I find your posts excellently written and highly thought-provoking! Posts like yours make the time I spend on these boards âwell-spentâ. Thank you.
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Thank you! I am also learning a great deal and being challenged by your insights to explain what I believe, at least to convince myself, if no one else, that I am not being self-contradictory.
