Animal consciousness stanford. 51-54) for a discussion of the phylogenetic distribution of the mechanisms underlying pain. There are many reasons for philosophical interest in nonhuman animal (hereafter “animal”) consciousness. Jan 8, 2008 · This is a file in the archives of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Jul 29, 2010 · In the seventeenth century, “consciousness” began to take on a uniquely modern sense. 1), animal consciousness (see the entry on animal consciousness), and neural correlates of the will and agency (see the entry on agency, section 5 Mar 17, 2017 · These questions include: which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like. Apr 23, 2023 · Studying animal consciousness can help us empathise with nonhuman animals, but it can also help people avoid grappling with the ethics of animal testing. Second, scientific explanations of animal behavior are objective in that there is typically a general agreement among researchers in the field on what would count in favor of or against the explanation; however, it has been argued that since the only generally agreed upon indicators of consciousness are verbal reports of the subject Animal Consciousness. Every now and then, though, new study findings about the surprising intelligence of other animals reignite this debate. 2 The mind-body problem. 1), animal consciousness (see the entry on animal consciousness), and neural correlates of the will and agency (see the entry on agency, section 5 Apr 27, 2024 · The four-paragraph New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness was unveiled on April 19 at a one-day conference called The Emerging Science of Animal Consciousness being held at New York University. 5 Communication. , Singer 1975/1990; Regan 1983; Andrews 1996; Varner 1999). 4 Simplicity. May 25, 2021 · Research on consciousness in animals to comprehend lesser forms of self‐awareness and how and why it evolved may therefore provide the clues to better understand human consciousness aptly described by Descartes’ Cogito ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am”. , other animals. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. To view the PDF, you must Log In or Become a Member. Jul 1, 2003 · The utilitarian position on animals would condemn a large number of practices that involve the suffering and death of billions of animals, but there are cases in which some use of non-human animals, and perhaps even human animals, may be morally justified (Gruen 2021: ch. 5. Philosophers are also using theories of consciousness to argue for or against animal consciousness. 635–653. You can also read more about the Friends of the SEP Society. 1. Philosophical Assumptions in the Study of Animal Cognition. 5 Summary. Octopi and other cephalopods have nervous systems throughout all their Animal Consciousness. –––, 2019. 3. Sep 8, 2003 · Zombies in philosophy are imaginary creatures designed to illuminate problems about consciousness and its relation to the physical world. See Varner (1999, pp. How does consciousness vary across the animal kingdom? Are some animals ‘more conscious’ than others? This article presents a multidimensional framework for understanding interspecies variation in states of consciousness. Using a paradigm where direction of apparent motion (here, left or right) is reported by an eye movement, the researchers also provided animals with a “sure bet” choice in some trials, a third target to which the animal could move its eye. They are scientific because answering them will require gathering information using scientific techniques — no amount of arm-chair pondering, conceptual Allen, Colin and Michael Trestman, "Animal Consciousness", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2024 Edition), Edward N. 1 The problem of other minds. Feeling pain or dizziness, appearances of color or shape, and episodic thought are some widely accepted examples. They are scientific because answering them will require gathering information using scientific techniques — no amount of arm-chair pondering, conceptual Questions about animal consciousness — in particular, which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like — are both scientific and philosophical. Minds and Bodies in Animal Evolution Michael Trestman; 20. (Although Descartes’ followers understood him to have denied all feeling to animals, some recent scholars question this interpretation; on this controversy, see Cottingham 1998 and Hatfield 2008. Questions about the nature of conscious awareness have likely been asked for as long as there have been humans. Animal Consciousness and Higher-Order Thoughts. There are the many reasons for philosophical interest in nonhuman animal (hereafter “animal”) consciousness. Jun 16, 2006 · Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832–1920) is known to posterity as the “father of experimental psychology” and the founder of the first psychology laboratory (Boring 1950: 317, 322, 344–5), [] whence he exerted enormous influence on the development of psychology as a discipline, especially in the United States. The framework distinguishes five key dimensions of variation: perceptual richness, evaluative richness, integration at a time, integration across time, and self 3. Some are covered in other entries such as split-brain phenomena (see the entry on the unity of consciousness, section 4. Kriegel (ed. Allen published Animal consciousness | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate Apr 3, 2001 · Higher-order theories of consciousness try to explain the difference between unconscious and conscious mental states in terms of a relation obtaining between the conscious state in question and a higher-order representation of some sort (either a higher-order perception of that state, or a higher-order thought about it). 2. Jan 1, 2022 · Philosophical and scientific work on animal minds and consciousness has surged in recent years with the publication of several major studies and reviews, such as Tye (), Andrews and Beck (), Allen-Hermanson (), as well as the recently launched on-line journal Animal Sentience (see, e. Animal Cognition Applied to Philosophy. Where animals are uncertain of the stimuli’s motion, they can opt out by taking the sure (smaller Attention, Working Memory, and Animal Consciousness Jesse Prinz; 18. Dec 3, 2008 · He regarded nonhuman animals as machines, devoid of mind and consciousness, and hence lacking in sentience. Rocco Gennaro; 19. First, if philosophy often begins with questions about the place of humans in nature, one way humans have attempted to locate themselves is by comparison and contrast with those things in nature most similar to themselves, i. ) Jul 1, 2003 · So if an animal has an interest in not suffering, which is arguably a crucial interest, or at least an important one, and a person has an interest in eating that animal when there are other things to eat, meaning that interest is replaceable, then the animal has the stronger interest and it would be wrong to violate that interest by killing the We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Neolithic burial practices appear to express spiritual beliefs and provide early evidence for at least minimally reflective thought about the nature of human consciousness (Pearson 1999, Clark and Riel-Salvatore 2001). 4 Thought. propose an initial similarity framework to tackle the problem of animal consciousness, which relies on the three central similarities of behavior, neurobiology and evolutionary path with humans. 3 Objectivity. History of the issue. Cognitive ethology purports to study animal consciousness (Griffin 1984, 1985, 1992 We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. However, caution is recommended with respect to his table on p. I believe we need to stop asking questions about animal consciousness that are based on a hierarchy. Jan 8, 2008 · Philosophers are developing theories of consciousness that are sensitive to studies of neurobiological and psychological properties of animals, including pain, emotions, decision-making, learning, memory, and future planning. 1), animal consciousness (see the entry on animal consciousness), and neural correlates of the will and agency (see the entry on agency, section 5 Jan 1, 2011 · PDF | On Jan 1, 2011, C. 2 Value-ladenness. There are many reasons for philosophical interest in nonhuman animal (hereafter “animal”) consciousness: First, if philosophy often begins with questions about the place of humans in nature, one way humans have attempted to locate themselves is by comparison and contrast with those things in nature most similar to themselves, i. Feb 19, 2005 · “Consciousness, self-consciousness, selfhood: A reply to some critics,” Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 9: 703–718. What is Animal Cognition? 2. Jun 18, 2004 · 1. Jan 8, 2008 · 1. Animal Mindreading: The Problem and How It Can Be We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. They are scientific because answering them will require gathering information using scientific techniques — no amount of arm-chair pondering, conceptual Jun 22, 2002 · To say you are in a state that is (phenomenally) conscious is to say—on a certain understanding of these terms—that you have an experience, or a state there is something it’s like for you to be in. ), Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, pp. e. “Consciousness and (minimal) selfhood: Getting clearer on for-me-ness and mineness,” in U. 1 Mirror Recognition This PDF version matches the latest version of this entry. Unlike the ones in films or witchcraft, they are exactly like us in all physical respects but without conscious experiences: by definition there is ‘nothing it is like’ to be a zombie. Consciousness in non-human animals can be explored philosophically through two central questions: the distribution question, which enquires which animals are conscious, and the phenomenological question, which seeks to understand what the experiences of animals are like (Allen and Trestman, 2024). The framework distinguishes five key dimensions of variation: perceptual richness, evaluative richness, integration at a time, integration across time, and self-consciousness. Philosophical interest in animal consciousness The topic of animal consciousness has been primarily of epistemological interest to philosophers of mind. , Harnad 2016, Klein and Barron 2016; see also Allen and Trestman 2016, Andrews 2016). Jul 13, 2017 · Such evidence, if available, may reasonably be thought to shed light on both the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of self-consciousness (Ferrari & Sternberg 1998; Terrace & Metcalfe 2005; see the entries on animal consciousness and animal cognition). Aug 20, 2020 · This article presents a multidimensional framework for understanding interspecies variation in states of consciousness. 4; Gilbert, Kaebnick, & Murray 2012). ) We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. (2002) for the proceedings of a scientific workshop on animal consciousness and Bermond (2001) for a review. ” For example, in Figure 1 we can see the squares corresponding to 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 as prominent, or alternately see 2, 4, 6, and 8 as prominent, without changing where we look and, it seems, while representing just the same figure and its elements all the while. 1. Dec 23, 1995 · Questions about animal consciousness — in particular, which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like — are both scientific and philosophical. A whole new world. Animal Consciousness. Motivations. Oct 9, 2018 · That said, there are many forms of consciousness that we will not discuss. Because of the importance of animal sentience to ethics, some of the most explicit statements of the evolution-reinforced similarity argument can be found in the animal rights and animal welfare literature (e. The Evolution of Consciousness in Phylogenetic Context Peter Godfrey-Smith; Part 4: Mindreading; 21. Notes to Animal Consciousness. Questions related to consciousness, which explore whether animals have consciousness and what (if anything) it ‘might be like’ to be those animals, have been approached both through philosophical and scientific inquiry. Two central questions are: Which animals besides humans have conscious experiences? What, if anything, are the experiences of animals like? Apr 23, 2023 · While we may enjoy the company of companion animals or a fleeting encounter with wildlife, many people believe humans have a superior consciousness of the world we live in. g. 3 Consciousness. They are scientific because answering them will require gathering information using scientific techniques — no amount of arm-chair pondering, conceptual May 22, 2000 · Nickel says we can see an arbitrarily chosen set of constituent squares “as prominent. 53 which suggests that the presence of specialized nociceptive neurons is limited to vertebrates. Just what sort(s) of science can bear on these questions is a live issue, but investigations of the behavior and neurophysiology of a wide taxonomic range of animals, as well as the phylogenetic relationships among taxa are relevant. Some recent scientific surveys include Seth et al. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds. (2005) for general neurological criteria for animal consciousness, Ârhem et al. Questions about animal consciousness — in particular, which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like — are both scientific and philosophical. This transition was sparked by new theories of mind and ideas, and it connected with other important issues of debate during the seventeenth century, including debates over the transparency of the mental, animal consciousness, and innate ideas. They are scientific because answering them will require gathering information using scientific techniques — no amount of arm-chair pondering, conceptual Feb 19, 2005 · “Consciousness, self-consciousness, selfhood: A reply to some critics,” Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 9: 703–718. . May 12, 2024 · 1 Introduction. 1 Theory-ladenness. 1 Mirror Recognition We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Dec 23, 1995 · There are many reasons for philosophical interest in nonhuman animal (hereafter “animal”) consciousness. aovzcgijczkiiwyoaskshhmddnfcymtalidgehvsvfccxsdhylsph