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Originally Posted by hip hop bunny hop
This would be, at best, anecdotal. All scientific evidence available tells us otherwise, link |
Even animals who don't pass the mirror test can still be *aware*, hip hop. Failure to pass a self-awareness mirror test does not mean an animal lacks awareness of being alive.
The brains of many animals are wired for experiencing emotions, vision, hearing, etc. Are you arguing that animals have no experience of existing? Are you arguing that they have pain receptors but can't feel pain? Are you arguing that animals who produce oxytocin don't feel affection, bonding, even love?
Have you never seen a dog who appears to be dreaming? What do you think the dog is experiencing? Nothing??
Finally, note that some animals, including European magpies, pass the mirror test you reference. Therefore, evidence that animals can be very aware not just of their own life and experiences, but also of themselves as individual "selves," is
not anecdotal.
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Children become self-aware before age two.
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The point was that my life experiences show that knowledge of death is not necessary to have awareness of being alive.
Your comment, though, makes me wonder: May we eat a 1-year-old before he tests as self-aware?
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How is it bogus? 99%+ of Animals lack self-awareness. Even those we consider intelligent - such as dogs - are, at best, able to accept a bit of Pavlovian conditioning. Not only do these creatures lack any concept of death, they lack the concept of self.
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Again, why do you select "self-awareness" as the deciding factor for whether or not we should eat a being?
I use the much broader definition of
"sentience." I argue that even 1-year-old babies who fail a self-awareness test are still sentient, and therefore, I don't eat 'em. What's your reason for not eating a 1-year-old baby who isn't "self-aware" according to the mirror test?
Here is the distinction between "self-awareness" and "sentience" from wikipedia:
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Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. Self-awareness, though similar to sentience in concept, includes the experience of the self, and has been argued as implicit to the hard problem of consciousness."
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Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences."