Do Animals

[Slawter]

have consciousness? or are they purely reactionary? I often wonder whether my cat is thinking "Feed me asshole" or is just doing things without any thought

[Gagsy]

Of course animals think. People just assume they can't because we cannot communicate across different species and so understand how animals think is difficult for us to comprehend.

[iateamexican]

That's a good question for the Ricky Gervais show.
I'd love to see Karl try and do that one.

[Soapbubble]

Yes. They have instincts, and their thoughts are based off of those instincts. They feel, they can think, most kinds of animals wont be able to use very complex logic, though.

[MJOLNIRchief90]

Well,

Humans are animals.
Humans have a consciousness.
Therefore, at least some animals have consciousness.

[Slawter]

At 8/25/11 09:07 AM, MJOLNIRchief90 wrote: Well,

Humans are animals.
Humans have a consciousness.
Therefore, at least some animals have consciousness.

Yeah but has human consciousness developed from our greater brain usage?

[LucasJC]

Everything animals do is based on their instincts and their pasts, they are not capable of thinking the way we do, but they can feel emotions and stuff like that.

[Me-Patch]

Charles Darwin basically claimed if you can prove that an animal dreams, then, in effect, you can prove that it has consciousness. Because after all, what is a dream other than a conscious image? It's been proven that rats can dream by MIT and others. Ergo, animals have consciousness.

The only question is which animals. The hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory, is basically wired the same way in virtually all vertebrates and mammals. So that's a good indicator.

[Zeppelyn]

Of course animals think, at least the more intelligent ones. I did a report on crow/raven intelligence(they're smarter than you think), watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwRHIuXq MU That crow had never been trained to do that, and according to sources the wire was left in there by accident, but they just decided to see what would happen. Instincts won't tell a crow to that, a substance that it will never find in the wild.

[Suprememessage]

Neither, they just have instincts, and mostly react to their enviroment.

[MJOLNIRchief90]

At 8/25/11 09:48 AM, Suprememessage wrote: Neither, they just have instincts, and mostly react to their enviroment.

There's no such thing as instinct. That's just scientist code for "we haven't figured out why they do it, yet".

[i-am-ghey]

they have conciousness and emotions. they do get scared when they sense danger, and react in almost the same way as humans. take a rat, lock it inside a cage and place it near a cat's excrement. you can sense its fear.

same species, such as lions, have moral standards too. family members need to obey a certain set of rules within the community, such as respecting the elder, or else they would be cast out.

[Slawter]

But if they had conscious though then wouldn't they be able to adapt (like humans)

[Phobotech]

*reads thread title*
"Don't mind if I do...."
*stares creepily at cat. Unbuckles belt*

[paradigmvulpes]

i think it depends. point one- i dont think fish have souls. point two- i think gerbils have souls, but they dont really think. Point three-i think animal like deer, geese, dogs and cats can think, but i would shoot a deer or geese. in short, yes, i think your cat can think, based on the thing were they rub up against you. they are admiting your dominion over them, but not that your smarter. that implies thought.

[Entice]

At 8/25/11 08:49 PM, Slawter wrote: But if they had conscious though then wouldn't they be able to adapt (like humans)

Some animals (like rats, cats, pigs, certain species of roaches) are able to adapt to a wide range of habitats making them invasive species all over the world.

I don't see what having a consciousness has to do with adaptability.

[sweet21]

In short yes.

[Piggler]

no aminals r dum

[PsychoZoid]

You have a point there, how do people think without even knowing any language like English?

[i-am-ghey]

At 8/25/11 10:08 PM, Psych wrote: You have a point there, how do people think without even knowing any language like English?

to put it simply, observation/feeling/judgement==>thoughts ==>actions/words.

lanugage is a tool to communicate your thoughts with other people. knowing a language is not necessary to have one own thoughts. toddlers experience sadness and happiness even though they don't know the correct words to describe their feelings. surely, there must be at least one occasion where you find it hard to fully express yourself through words?