Animal Consciousness, Essay Example

Animal consciousness clearly does exist as is evident from my own personal experiences with pets.  I have had the pleasure of owning multiple dogs and cats throughout my childhood and young adulthood.  Both animals have the capability to think and control their behaviors.  My cat is able to effectively communicate his hunger and other desires to me at will.  However, pigs lack the same ability based on my experiences.  While cats and dogs are able to think and strategize, so are human beings.  These behaviors make each species conscious and aware of personal thoughts, feelings and desires as well as how these relate to their external environment.  For instance, my cat knows that when he wants to drink water out of the sink, he needs to scratch on the bathroom door and meow constantly until I finally give in and open the door to turn on the sink.  Likewise, we understand that if we are hungry, we need to go to the refrigerator, grocery store or pick up the telephone to order takeout.  These are intentional behaviors that show that we are aware of our desires and understand the strategy and logic behind obtaining what we need to satisfy them.  Animals that are not conscious would not have the same abilities.

According to the reading, there are two main questions surrounding animal consciousness: the distribution question and the phenomenological question.  The distribution question asks if we can know exactly which animals have consciousness besides humans.  The phenomenological question asks if we can ever know what the experiences of other animals are like.  First of all, the distribution question can never truly be answered from my experience.  I have lived with both cats and dogs, and I believe that both of these species are definitely conscious animals.  However, I have also lived on a farm with cows and pigs and I have never witnessed any intentionally conscious behaviors from either animals.  I know that they eat, and perhaps that is because they are hungry.  However, I can never truly know that about pigs and cows.  On the other hand, I do know when my cat is hungry.  He will whine, cry and often rub his body up against my leg whenever he wants food.  My cat is conscious and knows what he wants, when he wants it and how to get me to provide him with what he wants.  These are all conscious behaviors.  I have never witnessed anything like that from cows or pigs.  Therefore, we can never know exactly which animals are conscious besides humans.  We can only know that some are conscious and some may not be.

The phenomenological question forces us to consider what the experiences of other animals me be.  Again, I can only answer this philosophical question based on my own experiences with my pets and farm animals.  I think our understanding of other animals is inhibited because we cannot step outside ourselves in order to experience life from the perspective of another animal.  For instance, I can never truly experience or understand how a pig acts.  Although Charlotte’s Web tells a fascinating story, the reality is that pigs are lazy creatures with very little apparent thought processes and behave out of habit, not out of logic or consciousness.  We are conscious beings; therefore, it is virtually impossible to imagine the experiences of species that are not conscious beings.  We are mentally trapped by our own biases and conscious thoughts that we cannot understand the experiences of such animals.  Furthermore, we may not be able to understand the experiences of animals that are not of our own specie.  We have enough trouble in psychology to understand fellow human beings that are both conscious and the same species, let along understanding the experiences of any other animals.  This is apparently our own natural problem and inhibitions, not necessarily a problem with other animals.

Bibliography

Allen, Colin. “Animal Consciousness.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 23 Dec. 1995. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/>.