34573 Y145 The Self-Conscious ChimpanzeeOnYourKnee
ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO ENSHRINE HUMAN SUPERIORITY
ACCEPTS THAT RATS, DOGS AND OTHER ANIMALS HAVE CONSCIOUSNESS,
BUT ARGUES THAT, UNLIKE HUMANS, THEY LACK SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
THEY MAY FEEL DEPRESSED, HAPPY, HUNGRY OR SATIATED, BUT THEY HAVE NO NOTION
OF SÈLF, AND THEY ARE NOT AWARE THAT THE DEPRESSION OR HUNGER THEY FEEL
BELONGS TO A UNIQUE ENTITY CALLED T? This idea is as common as it is opaque!
Obviously, when a dog feels hungry, he grabs a piece of meat for himself rather than
serve food to another dog? Let a dog sniff a tree watered by the neighbourhood dogs,
and he will immediately know whether it smells of his own urine, of the neighbour's cute
Labrador's or of some stranger's. Dogs react very differently to their own odour and to the
odours of potential mates & rivals. So what does it mean that they lack self-consciousness?
A more sophisticated version of the argument says that there are different levels of self-
consciousness? Only humans understand themselves as an enduring self that has a past
and a future, perhaps because only humans can use language in order to contemplate
their past experiences and future actions. Other animals exist ìn an eternal present.
Êven when they seem to remember the past or plan for the future, they are in fact reacting
only to present stimuli and momentary urges. For instance, a squirrel hiding for the winter
doesn't really remember the hunger he felt last winter, nor is he thinking about the future.
He just follows a momentary, oblivious to the origins ànd purpose of this urge. That's why
even very young squirrels, who haven't yet lived through a winter and hence cannot
remember winter, nevertheless cache nuts during the summer.
ACCEPTS THAT RATS, DOGS AND OTHER ANIMALS HAVE CONSCIOUSNESS,
BUT ARGUES THAT, UNLIKE HUMANS, THEY LACK SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
THEY MAY FEEL DEPRESSED, HAPPY, HUNGRY OR SATIATED, BUT THEY HAVE NO NOTION
OF SÈLF, AND THEY ARE NOT AWARE THAT THE DEPRESSION OR HUNGER THEY FEEL
BELONGS TO A UNIQUE ENTITY CALLED T? This idea is as common as it is opaque!
Obviously, when a dog feels hungry, he grabs a piece of meat for himself rather than
serve food to another dog? Let a dog sniff a tree watered by the neighbourhood dogs,
and he will immediately know whether it smells of his own urine, of the neighbour's cute
Labrador's or of some stranger's. Dogs react very differently to their own odour and to the
odours of potential mates & rivals. So what does it mean that they lack self-consciousness?
A more sophisticated version of the argument says that there are different levels of self-
consciousness? Only humans understand themselves as an enduring self that has a past
and a future, perhaps because only humans can use language in order to contemplate
their past experiences and future actions. Other animals exist ìn an eternal present.
Êven when they seem to remember the past or plan for the future, they are in fact reacting
only to present stimuli and momentary urges. For instance, a squirrel hiding for the winter
doesn't really remember the hunger he felt last winter, nor is he thinking about the future.
He just follows a momentary, oblivious to the origins ànd purpose of this urge. That's why
even very young squirrels, who haven't yet lived through a winter and hence cannot
remember winter, nevertheless cache nuts during the summer.
12 mei 2019 - bewerkt op 14 mei 2019
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