- self-awareness
- awareness of oneself in past and future
- awareness of one's body
- introspection
YES (Kant)"But so far as animals are concerned, we have no direct duties. Animals are not self-conscious and are there merely as a means to an end. That end is man." (Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics AWT p. 6)"The fact that man can have the idea 'I' raises him infinitely above all the other beings living on earth. By this he is a person; and by virtue of the unity of his consciousness, through all the changes he may undergo, he is one and the same person--that is, a being altogether different in rank and dignity from things, such as irrational animals, which we can dispose of as we please." (Kant, quoted in Fellow Creatures, by Christine Korsgaard, pg. 30)
NO (Singer)
"If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration.No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering-insofar as rough comparisons can be made—of any other being. If a being is not capable of suffering, or of experiencing pleasure or happiness, there is nothing to be counted." Peter Singer, Animal Liberation Now, pg. 8 of our pdf
A non-self-aware sentient being still has interests and is entitled to equal consideration. Then again, the non-self-aware may have somewhat difference interests.
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Do any animals have self-awareness?
- NO animals have any self-awareness (Kant's view)
- SOME have it, some lack it (Gordon Gallup's view -- inventor of the mirror test)
- ALL sentient animals have self-awareness to some degree
- feeling pain and pleasure creates awareness of ME
- bat is aware of certain echoes as MINE
- lion locates zebra relative to ME
- what is the "visual mark test"?
- The mirror test can be passed to different degrees
- complete pass
- elephants
- What would Kant say? Are elephants persons? Do they have full moral status?
- Also: Inside the animal mind episode 3, 32:44-36:40)
- intermediate--
- some animals fail the mark test but can use mirrors as a tool
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| Using mirror as a tool |
- intermediate--dogs and cats who don't react much to image instead of fighting with it
- complete fail--small songbirds and fighting fish--treat the image like it's someone else
- too visual
- dogs are smell oriented -- recognize own urine
- bats and dolphins are sound oriented -- recognize own echoes
- Recalling your past activities (episodic memory, autobiographical memory)
- anticipating your future activities
- time travel
- recalling yourself at your high school graduation
- using episodic memory strategically
- looking for my car in Airline garage -- visualize when I drove into it
- answering an exam question -- visualize when we were discussing it
- deciding whether to eat leftovers in your fridge--when did you put them there?
- Knowing where your car is ....you just know
- Clark's nutcracker knows where the seeds are--Inside the Animal Mind I, 15:11-17:48-
- I can ride a bike ... dog heels
- Chimps
DeWaal
- when chimps are going to a fig tree they've visited before they get up early, walk in the dark(which they avoid),
- Most plausible explanation: they recall past visits to the fig tree.
- Western scrub jays
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| Nicky Clayton's research they dig up cached food
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Examples
- grabbing an umbrella because you think it will rain
- includes forethought, planning, anticipation
- Squirrels hoarding nuts for the winter
- They're doing it "for the winter" (future) but are they thinking about the future?
- Behavior could be just triggered by nuts + shortening of the day
- Chimps: Storing a tool today for use tomorrow
- Crows
- Why does self-awareness seem SO important to Kant?
- is it really a determiner of fundamental moral status?