# animal awareness, what do you think?



## ContextSensitive (Apr 13, 2011)

Hey guys. I've always thought about the question whether animals (placentals) have a wake consciousness or not. I think they have emotions (not to be confused with feelings) and some kind of pre-cogitation. But are they really aware of what they do and that they live, or do we just reinterpret their behaviour when thinking they are jealous, envious, happy and so on? I heard it's the left side of the humans' brain that grants us an access to the wake consciousness. This side also includes thinking abilities like knowing, getting comprehension, using logic facts or forming strategies. But these abilities are human exclusive. Some animals may have the ability to create abstract thoughts too, but they're not as developed as those of human beings. Hence, my question is, do you think they really know to be living creatures? It's just that most parts of their behaviour are instinctual and preprogrammed. Just think about two cocks that want to attack each other. And if flight behaviour and the wish to attack the other cock blocks one another, picking for corn is the result, which makes not much sense for a human being, since there aren't any grains on the floor. But at least it makes them being calmed down and decreases their agression for each other. I know we have instinctual behaviour too, but it's kinda underdeveloped, and since we have a wake consciousnes we are able to use our awareness to scrutinise the things we do. Is it possible to know to be living but to don't know how to bring something into question? If I can't scrutinise something can I remember the things I've done when they aren't part of the instinctual behaviour? Of course, a mother dog will recognize her offspring, but does she really remember her children or will she just always recognize them when seeing each other? In some animal docusoaps it seems like the mother will "miss" her children, or that two animals of the same kind are jealous about one another. But I don't know if this perception is actually humanised. It may be a difficult question, because there are so many animals on earth with different intelligence and because it isn't really explored into detail. I'm just curious how you think about it.


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## DeductiveReasoner (Feb 25, 2011)

How do you differ emotions from feeling? I've heard many different explanations on that. And in order to know if animals have consciousness, we must first learn what consciousness truly is...which we don't. But judging from my dog's behavious, I'd say she's pretty conscious. Of course that may be a bit biased...


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## ContextSensitive (Apr 13, 2011)

It's a difficult question. I would say that animals can have emotions but they may not translate it into an actual feeling. Or vice versa? I'm not sure how much of their personality is free from instinctual behaviour. Maybe I should say it the other way around. They have feelings but I'm not sure about emotions, since animals can feel hunger, they can suffer from pain and cold, they can feel the need to fight when defending their territory, children and so on... but can they associate it with actual feelings like hate, love or something else? I'm not sure. As you said, there are so many different explanations on that. Sometimes I think animals truly feel something, but then I read my ethology book and get the impression as if they are robots. That might be wrong, because it's part of the ethology to deal with species-specific behaviour without regard to their individual personality, but when reading something like the cock example mentioned above I get the feeling that nearly everything is preprogrammed. I know we have instinctual behaviour too and in some cases every human being will act in the same way, but at least we have more space for decisions. In some way we're all biological robots", depending on how you define a "free personality". I will not link it to one person or one animal but with regard to the entirety of decisions of one species. Of course, there are more than 6 billion humans on earth, so I cannot compare them with tigers, for example. But I still think we have a higher sample space for choices, because we can reconsider them. Of course, no one is free of his genes. But I think a free will doesn't need this, because with genes it puts us into a position where we can overthink our doings and feelings. If we had no genes, we wouldn't have the need to overthink what we've done, because we would neither feel remorse nor the wish to overcome our strengths and weak spots. And I think a free will must include these things. In this way, an animals can't "feel" this need to get free and to develop itself. I cannot actually communicate with its feeling. But of course, it isn't an evidence, that they aren't there. But I thought emotions may be a prestate of feelings where I act them out without coming into touch. Animals have fewer choices than us. Instinctual behaviour might be complex in a scientists' point of view, but it's not intelligent. Intelligence means to overthink, to find abstract solutions and to question them. Animals don't live in this abstract world of solutions. They live in the physical world and in the world of emotions. And although some of them might be able to abstract thinking, you cannot compare them with human beings. Now, it's the question if they can be emotional intelligent. But I think emotional intelligence, though it's nonverbal, need an inner complexity too. Of course, I heard from cats and dogs who came to their owner and consoled him when he was sad. But is it really a sign, that the dog feeled his sadness? Maybe he just sensed it? Maybe a sad person smells different from a happy person. As we know, animals have far better senses, though humans are allround men and able to experience the greatest extract from the world. But since we are so overflowed with our thinking we can't use our senses in a way like animals do. So, the dog will get the impression that something is wrong, but he cannot actually feel that we are sad. Do you know what I mean? Sorry, English isn't my native language, that's why it may be hard to understand what I wanna say.


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## PAdude (Mar 18, 2011)

I think that it is almost impossible to tell.


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## Bast (Mar 23, 2011)

I have no doubt in my mind that animals are much more intelligent and aware than we tend to give them credit for.


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## Mr.Xl Vii (Jan 19, 2011)

Think of it this way. Chimpanzees are about as intelligent as a 3 year old human child. At three years old you're pretty conscious. You can't formulate or articulate in the manor that we do, but you're conscious and aware. Dolphins are said to be more intelligent. Whales and Elephants are in the same range. Thus they're all "conscious". They can even recognize themselves in a mirror. From here we can add levels of consciousness to dogs, cats, etc. They're not as intelligent as we are, but they're "conscious". Their thoughts are more instinctual though, I'd say. 

Plus, when did humans decide there was a separation between us and the rest of the animal kingdom?


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## Imperatrix (Jan 8, 2011)

I agree. Many animals are pretty conscious. Even fire ants will bond together in a flood to make a raft to keep the group from drowning.
YouTube - Ants create a lifeboat in the Amazon jungle - BBC wildlife
That's a pretty high level of sophistication. 
I lived on a ranch for a long time and observed the socialization of cows and goats. Sometimes I think that animals have a stronger sense of awareness than many people.
Don't get me wrong, I am still an omnivore, but I have a lot of respect for the animal world.


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## ContextSensitive (Apr 13, 2011)

I'm glad you think this way. I am not sure, because some facts sound as if animals are really non-intelligent, for example the things about the two cocks that I had written before. I never had an animal. Maybe that's why I have problems to estimate them. But its a really difficult question in general, because there are so many different animals on earth. I heard about dogs' experiments. The owner tested their dogs while people in the background let collapse a wall over them. The owner acted unconscious to see how their dog behave and if it barks for help. But none of the dogs reacted on it. Maybe it's because they sensed that there wasn't a real danger, or they didn't know that their owner were unconscious. But I think it's kinda strange to imagine an animal that you truly love, and then you collapse and your animal sits next to you and eats its food as though nothing had happened. o_o


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