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| "Man with a Cat and Woman with a Child" Marc Chagall (1914) |
Have you personally witnessed animals displaying behavior that suggest human-like consciousness? Do you know anyone who attributes such human-like consciousness to their pets? Have you seen animal behavior that suggests a human-like consciousness Mlodinow has too casually dismissed? Or do you think Mlodinow is right that we attribute consciously motivated behavior to animals when it's not really there?
Alternatively--or additionally--can you describe any cases in which you have found yourself retroactively attributing conscious motivation to actions that were not necessarily conscious choices when you made them? Or, to put it in other words, have you ever acted instinctively and later found yourself characterizing your actions as conscious choices?
When most people think of animals that demonstrate human-like consciousness, they think of movies like Air Bud or Scooby Doo. This portrayal of animals is very far from what real human-like consciousness in animals is like. I have worked at a veterinarian office for the past few years, and have seen many demonstrations of real consciousness in animals and some that is just attributed by the animal’s owner.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most animals that are in connection with people all of their lives have more human-like characteristics and rely less on instinct, making more conscious choices. If our domesticated pets only relied on instinct we would not keep them as pets very long! One example of an animal displaying a form of human-like consciousness is when my coworker and I were trying to medicate an old, cranky Labrador Retriever. She did not want to take her pill in any treats so we had to manually give her the pill by putting it down her throat. After she spit it out a few times, we tried again and thought it had gone down when she spit it out again and proceeded to sit on it so we could not get the pill to medicate her!
Mlodinow, I believe, has too casually dismissed any human-like consciousness in animals. People need to keep in perspective that animals are not people and do not have as much conscious thought as we do. Anyone who has ever owned a pet, besides a fish, has seen human-like consciousness demonstrated several times in that animal’s life.
Erin Ozment
Erin does make a good point in saying that domesticated animals show some real signs of having a human-like consciousness. I have four dogs, and so I have had my share of experiences with animal behavior. My chihuahua may not be able to speak to me to tell me what she's feeling, however she knows when we are about to leave the house. The reason I can tell is because she will do anything she can to try to get us to take her with us, such as trying to get us to pick her up, sitting by the door, etc. However, she thinks whenever we leave, that we are going to be gone for a long time, rater than for an hour. This is where the human-like consciousness is lost, in my opinion. As humans, when our companions leave, we don't automatically assume that they will be gone for good. We know that they will most likely be back within a few hours. Dogs don't understand that. So, while dogs may have some level of human-like consciousness, it is not the high level that most humans tend to attribute to their furry companions.
ReplyDeleteI can say that I have been at fault, though, to sometimes attribute my dogs' basic instincts to human-like tendencies. For example, I like to talk to my dogs like they are humans sometimes. I'll tell them whenever I am leaving, whenever I'm about to do homework, etc. Of course, when I say the word "go" their ears automatically perk up, because they have heard that word enough to know what it means, but I'm pretty sure they don't know what homework is. That doesn't stop me from exasperatedly turning to my dog and asking her to finish my homework when I've been working on it for hours!
Sometimes, even if we know that our pets can't really understand or relate to us, it is still nice to pretend that they can. This is why cat ladies are in such a multitude! However, I think Mlodinow was correct in dismissing the human-like consciousness in animals. They may be able to understand a few simple concepts, but not on the level that would count to make it human-like.
Kendall Walker
I agree with Kendall that is is nice to believe that our animals have human like qualities. It makes us feel as though they are a companion to us. I enjoy my dog running up to me after a long trip and licking me to show she is excited to see me back home. But I believe that animals are not motivated by human like consciousness. They are intrinsically motivated by their basic needs for survival. Maslow suggests that there are different levels of consciousness and that the first level is basic survival. Erin said that if domesticated animals were motivated only by instinct they would not stay at their homes, but I disagree with this because we provide them with what Maslow calls the basic needs for survival: air, water, food, shelter, sleep, sex, and maintaining homeostasis.
ReplyDeleteWhen you first bring an animal home you must keep them in a confined place so they will not be able to escape because at first they are worried that their needs will not be met, but after a few days one may release and they will remain in their new home. This is because all of their physiological needs are being met and that is the basic requirement for existence. They come back and stay because they do not have a conscience and all they care about is having their basic physiological needs met.
The reason that my dog is so eager to see me when I come home is not because she misses me necessarily but because she misses what I do for her. I take care of most of her basic needs ensuring that she has water, food and shelter. The second level of Maslow’s hierarchy involves safety and security. For humans this would mean a job to finance our needs, relationships that do not waver, and a moral code of some sort. Although one could argue that animals need relationships that do not waver I do not believe this is the case. Although an animal might be upset that their fellow playmate has died or that they have been moved to a new home it does not mean that they feel on a level of human consciousness. This perceived devastation can be traced back to the animal’s homeostasis being thrown off balance and when their homeostasis has been reprogrammed they go about life as if nothing happened. For these reasons I agree with Mlodinow that animals, as much as we hate to admit it, do not have advanced consciousness.
Katy Keiffer
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DeleteI think that you aren’t giving animals as much credit as they are due. While your post does make sense in the instances that you described I would find it hard to believe that the unconscious mind of an animal could be taught something simply by a disapproving look or gesture from their owner. If they were truly entirely unconscious animals than it would take more than guilt to teach them everybody would have to inflict pain on their animals to get them to learn, but my family has raised pets my entire life and usually all it takes is disapproval to teach a pet not to do something as simple as take food off of the table. As for your description of how animals get over loss I would say that that may be slightly inaccurate though I have nothing to back it up with. The fact that the pet gets over loss doesn’t show that they are mainly unconscious creatures because humans get over loss as well, in fact generally we feel depressed over the loss of someone close to us because our conscious mind continues to think about them and seemingly keep them alive to us despite the fact that we cannot see or touch them.
DeleteJeffrey Johnson
I do believe in some ways that animals demonstrate human-like behavior. For instance, the other day my brother caught my cat trying to get into our sink. She seemed to stay where she was and wait for my brother's reaction. My cat is aware of what the word no means so Kade proceeded to tell her so. After telling her no and that she needed to get down, my cat proceeded to leave in a rush. Awhile later my brother approached the bathroom again, and found my cat trying for a second time to complete her feat. She seemed to display feelings of guilt at being caught doing what she was told not to. My cat cowered and ran out of the bathroom as fast as she could before my brother could say anything.
ReplyDeleteThis display of rebellion and feelings of guiltiness lead me to think that animals do have a level of conscious thinking. Like the previous comments have stated it is nice to think that our animals have human-like tendencies, and I believe that they do. As Erin said, if our animals only behaved by instinct we probably wouldn't have them running about our house or backyard. I also believe that the love our animals show us is based on the fact that we are their caretakers, as Katy made apparent; but I also think that domesticated animals, such as dogs and cats, need the love we provide on more than just an instinctual level.
Based on the fact that my dog wines and cries when my family returns from long absences, even when she has been cared for by my uncle, her instinct isn't telling her to show feelings of sadness so that we will come and see her, but she really does in fact miss us. Some might say that she is wanting to play fetch, needing the exercise or the stimulation of catching the ball; but when I do go out to play with her and she allows the ball to fall to the ground and role away in order to sit and be pet, she is consciously wanting my attention, not because her instinct is telling her so.
So yes, I disagree with Mlodinow that animals do not demonstrate human-like behavior; but I also realize that at times instinct is what drives our animals actions and decisions.
Chelsi Norris
I agree with Chelsi. I also see signs of guilt in my dogs when they have done things they have gotten into trouble for in the past. Things such as getting into the trash, using the bathroom in the house, and tearing up furniture are things that have been dealt with in my house regarding our dogs. We have punished them for it, so when they do it again and are caught, they show their feeling of guilt. Their ears go down, their tail curls under, and they cower to the ground. I can see that they knew that what they did was wrong and they knew that they should not have done it. They know what the consequences are. Another thing that I have noticed is that they sometimes hide what they do wrong. Sometimes, my dogs will use the bathroom in the house behind a piece of furniture or in a corner. It is somewhere that would make it unlikely to be found. All of these reasons have made me believe that animals do have a conscious, and we have an influence on them.
DeleteI agree with Chelsi here. My dog is very hyper and hardly sits still for more than a second. One day I was crying and he came and sat beside me and put his head on my shoulder until I stopped crying. Also, when I am gone for long periods of time he stresses and has seizures because he has an emotional attachment to me even though my parents give him everything he needs to survive. I believe that domesticated animals have human like emotions that are not too hard for a pet owner to notice.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Hicks
My mom lives alone with our dog Tate and since I have left he has become her new companion. He does a bark and growl thing when she talks to him or when he wants her to give him food or attention. To me this would suggest some type of human characteristic.
ReplyDeleteI think people in general like when things respond to specifically themselves, whether that is a human, like a best friend, or an animal. This could be a reason why people humanize their pets so much because if you think about it animals that show us more personality and affection tend to grab our attention more and in return we treat them better verses those that respond with blankness. That could also relate to the friend situation; we like to be around people more that treat us more special than others.
-Ashley Huhman
I completely agree with Ashley. I honestly think that the human-like characteristics in animals depend a great deal on their owners. However, even some untamed animals show certain signs of human-like behavior. For example, a mother bear protecting her baby cub. That motherly instict is very humanistic. Of course, it is a basic trait and is commonly found, but if one would consider animals to be just simple minded and have no self-consciousness, then it would not make sense for such a characteristic to occur. I definitely believe the more interaction with humans an animal has, the more it will develop and show certain charactistics that we, as humans, would consider a human-like consciousness.
DeleteKelsey J
There are several people that have made very valid points. I agree with Katy in the fact that animals do function with survival in mind; and therefore the human like qualities they seem to posses do not come from having a human-like consciousness. However, I do believe that some animals (like those who have been domesticated for some time) may have a higher level of consciousness than survival that mimics how humans behave. This doesn't mean domesticated animals have a human-like consciousness, they have just evolved to imitate our behaviors. When we see this difference in some animals, we automatically assume that other animals will behave the same, therefore creating the believe that animals can behave like humans.
ReplyDeleteI believe that even though many animals may posses the capability to have a higher consciousness than basic survival, this doesn't apply to all animals. They all have a personality that is unique, but it is not the same as what humans do.
-Miranda McNabb
I've enjoyed reading the thoughts on this thread. I think that each of you has made a good point on the issue. However, my feelings on this matter can be summed up in two comments mentioned previously by Erin and Miranda.
ReplyDeleteErin started the thread of early by stating:
"I believe that most animals that are in connection with people all of their lives have more human-like characteristics and rely less on instinct, making more conscious choices."
I really enjoyed how she mentioned that domesticated pets or other animals which are in contact with people throughout their lives BECOME conditioned to react with a more conscious "choice," if you will, rather than instinct. The key factor being that they are conditioned to this behavior. I am proposing another question though; in order to be conditioned to a certain behavior, must you be conscious or unconscious of the conditioning?
For example, if I notice that my cat (that has been a part of my family for nearly 7 years now) has become a "pickier" eater and gives my family members the cold shoulder after we come back from a family vacation as a sign of his disapproval, is he conscious of his behavior and the changes he has made in his lifestyle or is this too becoming instinctual, habitual, and part of his unconscious behavior?
I also very much enjoyed Miranda's comment about animals imitating human consciousness.
"However, I do believe that some animals (like those who have been domesticated for some time) may have a higher level of consciousness than survival that mimics how humans behave. This doesn't mean domesticated animals have a human-like consciousness, they have just evolved to imitate our behaviors."
No matter how hard they "try" animals will always be imitators though. In this, I think that Mlodinow wins out in that the majority of an animal's behavior is unconsciously motivated.
-Emily Davis
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ReplyDeleteI believe that animals can have a human-like consciousness. I have had pets all of my life, and I have noticed their sometimes unusual behaviors. I share a close bond with my dog, and I feel like she has developed similar traits of mine. I am a reserved person who shares words and feelings with only a select group of people. There are people, even within my family, who I am not comfortable around. My dog expresses this same feeling with the same people. She will growl, bark, and bite at them if they come anywhere near me or her. When they start walking away, she will actually start whining at me. Being a five pound Chihuahua, she is determined that she is extremely vicious. Some may say that it is coincidence or the demeanor of the other person. However, I believe that it is because my dog trusts me. I have had her since she was a puppy, so I believe that she has grown to be like me.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance includes my Chihuahua yet again. She demonstrates a sense of preference for food like that of the roundworm called C. elegans that Mlodinow refers to. According to Mlodinow, the roundworm may choose to pass a piece of bacteria and go toward another. The dog food that we buy for both of our dogs consists of different sized, shaped, and colored pieces. I started noticing that there would be a huge mess of the food surrounding the outside of the bowl. The first couple of times, I thought nothing of it and proceeded to clean the mess. It continued to happen on a regular basis. At the time, I did not know which dog it was until I saw my Chihuahua eat. I observed her eating, and I was astonished by what I saw. The bowl has a dispenser attached to the back of it. My dog would stick her nose far into the bowl and move all of the pieces around, causing most to fall on the floor. Then, she would go as far as she could up the dispenser to retrieve one particular piece of food. After witnessing this, I decided to test what was happening. I got a handful of fresh dog food and put it on the floor in front of her. I watched as she sniffed through the pile. She would pick out the long stick-like pieces and eat those first. She ate the green ones second, the red ones third, and the brown ones were last. This made sense because the ones that were all over the floor were brown. I did the same thing three times, and I got the same results every time. Although it was hilarious to watch my dog do this, I learned that she has preferences.
I could go either way with whether or not animals having a human-like consciousness. I think that they have one to an extent. Nevertheless, we are human, and they are not. The main difference between the two is that we can reason as human beings. When our conscious tells us something, we can decide to listen to it and act on it or dismiss it. Because animals do not have the ability to reason, I think that they act on whatever they feel like they want to do. Instinct obviously plays a major role in this, but I think that consciousness has a role as well.
I have worked at an animal hospital all summer and I have realized that animals are more human like than we, including Mlodinow, give them credit for. Dogs can be taught certain tricks and how to behave, but they can go a step further. These animals also remember one time experiences. Westwood, the clinic where I worked, had a live-in cat, Punkin, who has three legs. This happened because he got his leg stuck in the kennel door over night and it lost circulation and had to be amputated. The months after this accident were hard for Punkin because he had to learn to walk with only three legs. It did not take him much time to learn, but he showed similar symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He slept more than usual and hardly ate, while never interacting with the other house cats. He would not even be near his kitten who he raised. Eventually he went back to normal, but he will only be in a kennel if another cat is with him. Anytime he needs treatments or needs to be examined, he will be much more fussy than before his accident. This shows that he has humane reactions to similar situations.
ReplyDeleteWhile I disagree with Mlodinow's opinion of the animal conscience, he is right that there are limits. If there is a cat who has lived with people his or her whole life, who has never needed to hunt for anything in his or her life, the cat might still over eat to the point when he or she vomits. That is because a cat's natural instinct is to eat what food is available, even when it has more than enough. Animals are only as humane as their instincts allow.
Kyle Hetzel
I believe animals will mimic our behavior, or essentially act the way they think we want them to, as Chelsi mentioned. My family adopted two daschunds that were from the same litter and kept them together with us for three years. A few weeks ago, one of the sisters died suddenly and there was a noticeable change in the surviving sister. She was not as active, ate less, and seemed to follow us everywhere we went. Could it be that she was feeling lonely as we probably were after her sister died? Or was it that we unconsciously kept her closer to us after the tragedy occurred? I will not personally go as far to say that she was “depressed” however, I do think she could sense a shift in our attitude towards her. Our sadness seemed to be reflected in the dog, even though she couldn’t fully comprehend where her sister had gone. We all know she couldn’t understand the situation, but rather behaved in the way her masters were behaving.
ReplyDeleteWhich brings me to another point; I believe dominance plays a huge role in how animals behave around us. Once they’ve been domesticated, they know their place is below us and behave as such, dogs in particular. If you were to bring a wolf into your house, it is likely to eat you as opposed to rolling over for a belly rub. Like Mladinow mentions in a later chapter, we speak to man’s best friend in a manner that displays our superiority. Like the apes that pound their chests, we look down and give domesticated animals commands typically with an assertive tone in our voice.
My grandmother on the other hand attributes any and all human-like thought processes to her Chihuahua. She feels he craves chicken some days and others would prefer a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Normally I’d say she’s losing it in her old age, but I honestly think she believes her dog is capable of making such bizarre requests. She feels he becomes sneaky when other dogs come over and tells us he thinks he’s a larger dog than he actually is. She treats him exactly how she would a small child. She is unaware that she is giving traits specific to humans to a dog not capable of such thoughts; no one has brought it to her attention that he is in fact a DOG, and perhaps that is why she continues to do so. Even if it was brought to her attention that speaking for her dog was ridiculous, I believe that out of the sincere lover she has for her pet, she will still insist that he has these thoughts and emotions, more than likely to continue to feel a bond with him.
-Alexa Engles
I have two cats at home, and they seem to socialize very well with each other, but they usually do not seem to exhibit human-like behavior. I think it is possible that Mlodinow was right when he claimed that we as humans think of animals as too human. Many domesticated animals are observed to reflect the owner’s personality, but it is entirely possible that the “reflection” could be the unconscious association we make between the pet and the owner. If someone were to observe a dog’s behavior before seeing the owner’s, I think it is unlikely that the person would associate the dog’s behavior as a reflection of that of the owner. I think it is more likely that we attribute a better capacity for conscious thought to animals than they have in order to justify companionship with them, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. It is still possible that our pets have some form of conscious thought, but we are unable to perceive it due to our assumptions that they share a like mind to humans.
ReplyDeleteWhen people act instinctively and later attribute it to conscious thought, it may be as close to an animal’s form of consciousness as we could be. We deny that our unconscious is a factor in our choice, taking on the same ignorance that many believe is a characteristic of animals. I can’t think of any of the undoubtedly many occasions where I have done this myself, since I was unable to recognize that any unconscious action took place.
Eric Loucks
I would have to say that animals have a greater sense of consciousness than we may attribute to them, but that level of consciousness doesn’t reach the level of the human consciousness. One thing that shows me that dogs and cats specifically have a greater level of consciousness than what Mlodinow gives them credit for is their ability to be potty trained. In a completely unconscious state animals have no need to worry about where they expel their waste. They may not want to do their business in a place they are frequently at but there are many nooks and crannies of a house that a pet could use to relieve themselves and don’t if they are properly potty trained. Not only can they be taught where not to pee they can learn exactly where they are supposed to go to do their business.
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot to sign my name
DeleteJeffrey Johnson