Are animals conscious?
Consciousness has been called the “hard problem” of philosophy; scientists
still don’t have any idea what human consciousness is. But it seems that for
most people, consciousness is still on that ever-shrinking list of things that
separate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom; only humans have
consciousness. But is that true, or is it just more evidence of human
arrogance?
Lately I have seen a number of
things that have made me question the presumption that animals aren’t
conscious. The first is my sweet cat, KittyCat. Sometime about six months ago she
and I got in the habit of brushing her every evening about 7:00. I am regularly
amazed at how she turns up in the living room every day about that hour. It’s
usually the time we are finishing dinner, so you could say she’s using the clue
of the sounds of dishes being washed, but there are many times when we haven’t
eaten and she still shows up. We joke about her Mickey-Mouse wristwatch, but
truly it amazes me how she is so aware.
