on animal cognition. A thoughtful essay (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, December 09, 2016, 18:00 (2689 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: How much do we really know about animal cognition? We can assume other humans have consciousness because we recognize our own mental state, but animals are at a different level:

I agree that they are at a different level. (See below)

https://aeon.co/essays/why-wont-biologists-say-that-animals-might-be-conscious?utm_sour...

QUOTES: Anthropomorphism becomes a problem here because it inevitably calls upon the idea that animals are conscious, which is a hypothesis that cannot be tested.

Cognitive abilities such as abstract representation are not the same as consciousness. They just seem to cohabit in the one species – humans – to which we are comfortable ascribing consciousness.

It is only a muddling of the distinction between consciousness and cognition, and researchers’ convention against assuming consciousness, that forces us to play down the intellectual prowess of our companion species. We would do well to break this habit.

To be clear, I have no crusade to blow open the doors of animal behaviour research and declare every animal a conscious mind. But nor should we be hubristic about the differences between humans and other vertebrates. That’s another sin in the biological sciences.

David’s comment: We cannot get inside, but we can recognize animal's cognitive abilities, tool use, intentionality of purposive activity, etc. But we can be sure they do not analyze or evaluate what they do, as we do. Humans are different, not by degree, but by kind.

Thank you for presenting and editing this article. I am full of admiration and gratitude for the manner in which you continue to monitor all these developments for us.

I have now read the whole article, which I find stimulating and thought-provoking, but unless we actually have a definition of consciousness, I also find it a bit frustrating. I do not accept the distinction between cognition and consciousness, because for me cognition is one inseparable element of consciousness. If we define consciousness simply as awareness, I think the picture becomes much clearer. Any organism that is aware of its environment (including other organisms), can process information, take decisions based on that information, communicate with other organisms, learn from experience etc. - all of which require awareness – in my book, qualifies to be called conscious. The question then is not WHETHER an organism is conscious/aware, but what it is conscious/aware of, and the answer to that question (which will depend on our subjective observations of behaviour) will determine the degree of consciousness. I am becoming increasingly convinced that even the smallest organisms fulfil the above criteria. That does not mean they are mini-humans, any more than it means humans are maxi-ants. My suggestion would be that there are many similarities handed down from our common ancestors (the reverse direction from anthropomorphism), and many differences, because species – broad sense – are all different in kind and consequently “think” differently. But I agree with you, of course, that humans are aware of a vastly greater range of things than other organisms, which means we have a far, far higher “level” (your word) of consciousness, and this has resulted in our extraordinary powers of analysis, observation and creativity. I also agree with the author that we should not underestimate the intellectual prowess of our fellow animals, and we should not be hubristic about anything!