Dogs: People Too?

showbiz_liz — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:28:38 -0800

What are the arguments for and against the idea that animals have self-awareness? I'm in an anthropology class called Moral Consciousness that discusses human conceptions of selfhood. It's a very interesting class, but I have one problem with it- the professor has stated several times, in an off-hand, of-course-this-is-true sort of way, that ONLY humans have selfhood. He seems to have a basic assumption that animals don't, and that humans have overcome their instincts in a way that animals can't.

I've always been very interested in the idea that humans and animals are far less different than we usually assume, and I'm not sure if I can just accept my professor's assumption without some evidence. I'm reminded of statements like "animals don't use tools" and "animals don't have emotions" that were accepted for years and later disproven. So, when he says that only humans are capable of thinking of themselves as "I", or of rejecting food when they are starving, or of sacrificing themselves, or of thinking abstractly, it bothers me that he isn't presenting any evidence. I'm not sure if there actually IS evidence for these things, or if they're just baseless assumptions.

So- where can I find some decent evidence for and/or against my professor's statements? Are there actually papers and studies on the question of animal self-awareness?

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Dogs: People Too?