Do Animals Have Minds?

As scientists continue to their research, fundamental questions about intelligence are brought to the surface.

In the article “You Can Grow Your Intelligence”, the author discussed a couple of studies that proved not only can your brain grow, but so can your intelligence. It mentioned facts pertaining to the weight of the brain, connection between nerve cells and how it affects the overall intelligence of a species. One of these studies included animals from different environments being tested on their intelligence. According to the study, the animals that were held in captivity and lived alone were not only found to have smaller brains than the ones who lived in a challenging environment, but had less communication between the brain cells that allows them to think strategically and communicate with others. The article claims this theory to be true

There are many reasons on why I support his claim. For instance, The article states, “They feel pain, suffer,and experience stress, affection, excitements and even love.” This can change the way we see animals because animals are just like humans with the same emotions and feelings. Animals are also very similar with cognitive abilities as humans. For

4. One of the most important thinking abilities that humans have that other animals apparently do not have is the ability to

Animal Intelligence Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge. Psychologists have exploited this concept in many ways to try and determine whether non-human animals are capable of intelligence. From social learning it is logical to assume that, since non-human animals are able to both acquire and use new behaviours, they must be intelligent in some way. Heyes stated that there are 6 types of behaviour which suggest intelligence. These are imitation, self-recognition, social relationship formation, role-taking, deception and perspective taking.

Bor uses the factual evidence that “every person on the planet, on average, consumes twice his or her weight in animal-derived food each year” (Bor) to set the stage form this controversial topic that hangs on the question of consciousness. Bor once again makes the audience read the entire section on animal rights before revealing his stance on the issue; Bor claims to be a vegetarian which shows the reader that he believes animals experience consciousness to the point where they should not be consumed as a food source. He presents the question how many animals actually have the brain regions required for consciousness? Bor then answers that most mammals have developed these structures and saying that this is “suggesting strongly that they too have some significant levels of consciousness” (Bor). He then references several animals how have been observed to use tools and “demonstrate a mental life that many would classify as conscious” (Bor) such as a crow or an octopus. Bor refers to several test done to various species to determine their self-consciousness and metacognition. The self-awareness test revealed “chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, dolphins, elephants, and pigs” (Bor) to have some degree of self-awareness while the metacognition test revealed that “great apes and monkeys” (Bor) show metacognition. Bor uses these results to support his ideals that “ethically consistent for us to extend

Have you ever heard a parrot repeat what a human has said. Is this a sign of intelligence or is it mimic. I believe that animals are intelligent. Animals use their intelligence to find food, a mate, and a home.

According to Martin Schonfield in “Animal Consciousness: Paradigm Change in the Life Sciences” “In the old analytic climate, claims that animals are sentient raised methodological and ideological problems and seemed debatable at best.”(Schonfield p. 1) Claims that animals were self-aware or intelligent were regarded as unfounded. “The task of science in the past four centuries had been to demythologize the past.”(Schonfield p.1) Daniel C. Dennett in “Animal Consciousness: What Matters and Why” states “that speculating about animal consciousness makes no sense.” (Dennett p.19) He wonders why we need to know about animal consciousness at all. I disagree with Dennett and will explore the possibilities of animals actually experiencing

Rifkin gives an example of two birds, Betty and Abel, who use their intelligence to make hooks for retrieving food wedged into tubes. Rifkin states, “…study into animal emotions and cognitive abilities...” This experiment shows how animals, and in this case, Betty and Abel, can use their brains to come up with solutions to complex problems, just the same

After reading Jeremy Rifkin’s article, “A Change of Heart about Animals”, I discovered more about animals than I had ever known before. As a former pet owner I know how much owners care for their pets and consider them to be a part of the family, almost like a child to them, so they are treated with kindness and are loved to the fullest. What I did not know was how intelligent animals actually are. Rifkin does a great job at expressing this by demonstrating to the audience facts that they had possibly not known or heard of before. For example, he describes how crows can make tools out of a wire, gorillas can learn sign language and have an average score on an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, and how pigs can often feel lonely and go into depression.

In Seth Borenstein’s article about non-human primates, he discusses how humans and apes are similar. Likewise, the author states that it appears that apes have the skill sets to walk in someone else’s shoes, just as humans can. The author ties in a study that was conducted on select great apes to see if they shared this trait with humans known as the “theory of the mind.” Borenstien points out the study focuses on the idea of false beliefs and how these primates react to this information. He continues by expressing that previously, the great apes were thought to be unable to understand this concept that human toddlers could, but according to recent research involving primates and clips of King Kong, these apes are capable of understanding that what is happening is not true. An expert, Kano, from the University of Kyoto commented on the study and remarked that while this is a big step, it does not imply full complex understanding. However, Borenstien insists that this is very important because previous studies were unsuccessful and this expresses complex cognition among non-human primates. On the other hand, the author includes the facts that the sample size for this

The rarity of human uniqueness no longer exists in the thoughts of scientists believing that human ability skills lie within the construction and use of tools. As declared by Goodall in which chimpanzees used straight sticks after removing the leaves and branches to collect termites or ants for consumption. (Goodall, 1986) Other species both primate and non-primate demonstrate successful abilities., which include a sense of self as well as the theory of mind, by which other species recognize that other individuals contain different information than themselves. Different species also have the ability to communicate symbolically to one another through the sounds of vocalization. (Sapolsky R. M., 2006)

When I was taking psychology 101, we were tasked with an animal metacognition research project. Metacognition is the ability to anylize our thoughts. In other words, to be aware of our existence and our selves in the world. While conducting research, I found a very special case of a primate. This primate's name was Koko. It's thought that Koko has been one of the few primates that has been able to master a certain degree of sign language. Many think its only a case of watching and repeating, but many experiments have been conducting to reinforce the idea that Koko can actually make her own decisions based on physical cues. A very interesting case, yet theres still not a clear answer among scientists as to weather any non-human species poceses

Some people think animals are dumb but they are just calling themselves dumb. Animals are smart because in the article speaking bonobo it states, “ Kanzi touched the symbols for fire and marshmallow, then hi was given matches and marshmallows on a stick…” The animal had to remember the marshmallow symbol and the fire symbol to want them.

One of the most controversial topics in modern philosophy revolves around the idea of non-human animals being considered human people. Controversy over what makes up an actual person has been long debated. However, society deems it as a set of characteristics. The average person normally does not realize how complicated a question this is, and in fact many scientists, philosophers, and individuals will side differently on this specific topic. I personally do not believe that animals are capable of being human people, but throughout this argumentative paper I will address critical views presented from multiple philosophers on why this seems to be the case.