Veeky Forums, how do we know other animals don't have consciousness?
Every experience we have is explained by chemical reactions in the brain. Pain, affection, sexual arousal, empathy, all are cold and calculated reactions for serving some evolutionary purpose, and most other animals display these exact same "feelings".
The thing that sets humans apart is that we have a sense of "being". When a human has physical pain inflicted upon him, he not only exhibits the instinctual response to pain, but there is a "self" there to experience the pain. But we only know this because we assume that he is just like ourselves; that he also is aware of what is happening to him. Scientists don't actually know why our brains have developed self awareness.
You, the person reading this, can't be absolutely sure that anyone else in the world (including me, the one writing this) has the same ability to experience reality as you do, and that they're not just bags of organic material reacting to stimuli in a way any non-conscious animal would. After all, there's no reason to think the ability to type words on a keyboard requires a "being" to be aware of what they're doing. Just as I can't be sure that I'm not the only one with a consciousness. Furthermore, if all humans have consciousness, why am I me? Why are all of my experiences taking place from the perspective of this specific human, and not any other one?
Since we don't know what causes what we call "consciousness" in humans, how on Earth can we say that other animals don't have the same sense of being that we have? My dog behaves more or less the same as I do (eat, sleep, survive, fuck), but we for some reason assume that it can't "feel" itself in the same way we can.
Charles Morris
You couldn't verify the consciousness of an animal unless you had a consistent means of communication with said animal. But supposedly, the mirror test that's given to animals supports the theory that they are conscious.
Oliver Thomas
>dualist model of consciousness Don't be a retard.
Christopher Thompson
How do I know other humans have conciousness?
Austin Diaz
The burden of proof is on the one who makes claims. In the past there were no ways to prove that animals had consciousness, so it became a consensus that they don't have it.
However, the research methods have become more powerful, and now we have some evidence that even insects have some degree of consciousness.
Henry Baker
what even is consciousness?
Lucas Green
An instrument?
Nicholas Martin
We don't. We just assume. In fact, just like implies, we only know ourselves to have consciousness and no one else. There is only "I think, therefore I am", and no way to reach "they think, therefore they are" as far as we know.
Alexander Stewart
We don't know if other people have consciousnesses, but it would be a pretty odd idea for people to propagate if they actually weren't conscious.
Caleb Hill
I believe we are on the same page. I definitely agree with you there. Of course I don't go around acting like my friends are nothing but automatons. I'm just merely stating it as a devil's advocate kind of thing, to say that the possibility is there, and that it's good to realize this if you're interested in diving deep into this kind of discussion.
Adrian Reyes
Don't most people believe animals have consciousness? I think even squirrels are conscious, I saw a squirrel playing in my yard today, it was jumping and rolling around and not doing anything logical like finding food. I'm pretty sure the squirrel was just having fun like any human would. That being said, just because they are conscious doesn't mean I have a problem with eating them.
Bentley Anderson
We just believe animal consciousness is far from developing a human structure. Even if communication is possible, we haven't seen any cases of an animal constructing statements as questions.
Robert Morgan
>be me, kill and rip things apart with my mouth to survive >never settle in one place, all I know is what I've known since forever, follow the pack, etc >one day approach dangrous animal because I know there is food around here >dangerous animal postures and watches me >suddenly unforseen sensations of cold and pressure on side >enter fight or flight because you don't know if this can kill you
Seems conscious to me, maybe not much smarter than that though.
Brandon Long
What if the animal doesn't care what's on the mirror or douesnt understand that the mirror is a reflection.
Daniel Rogers
I don't really care if the animals I eat are conscious. Just like it doesn't really bother me that brown people are dying on the other side of the globe to keep my dollar valuable. It benefits me, so i'm fine with it.
James Lee
Most animals are probably conscious. Consciousness is an emergent phenomena of chemistry., think of it like another form of matter.
Juan Mitchell
THIS Observation in the sense of a thermodynamically irreversible quantum exchange is probably what creates the Cartesian theatre
Jose Sanders
>Consciousness is an emergent phenomena of chemistry., Nah it is actually a fundamental part of the universe. Look up the hard problem of consciousness it pretty much proves physics can't account for consciousness.
Oliver Powell
Qualia are not real. Your "consciousness" does not exist.
William Watson
Conciousness is a spectrum.
Ethan Richardson
That's plainly wrong. That is like saying you only seem to be seeming but you aren't really seeming.
Jace Parker
Like a kazoo?
Jackson Nguyen
Yes
Luis Stewart
If qualia aren't real then no evidence can be trusted, not even the evidence telling me that qualia aren't real, since all evidence is displayed to me as qualia.
Nathaniel Hughes
Animals don't have Consciousness, neither do Humans. Consciousness has both.
Benjamin Campbell
>How do we know
We don't. They may very well have the same kind of "consciousness" we do. But they lack the richness of definition and experience we use to guide our decisions and frame our questions.
