2007-02-09 14:05:52 · 21 answers · asked by door45 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Yes, I've read about mother elephants mourning and trumpeting for days after one of their babies die. I doubt if they are the only species to do so.
2007-02-09 14:19:40 · answer #1 · answered by Croa 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I consider wild animals irrational and also consider death to have a:
a) biological and b) abstract nature and meaning.
For the biological part of the nature of death, I believe it can be comprehended irrationally, trough fear of death, which is common for all animals and humans and trough near death experience, which is purely biological and represents, in a way, the culmination of the fear. About the abstract nature of death, which would have its essence in the very concept of it, I believe it is (almost) purely rational, and, since humans are the only species (proved to be) rational, I wouldn't say that animals can have a concept of death, being unable to form ideas in their mind.
2007-02-10 00:19:06 · answer #2 · answered by Uros I 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they are aware of another being as different from the inanimate, they would logically be aware of death as an end to a living being, for they can see other living beings becoming still and unmoving like the inanimate after an event and the decay of the body thereafter.
2007-02-09 23:34:58 · answer #3 · answered by small 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They know it when they see it, I think - I think that if, say an animal sees another animal it used to interact with, dead, they know that means the animal is gone for good, and they learn this from experience just as we do.
But I don't think they consider it abstractly to the point that they contemplate their own mortality, or anticipate it when death is imminent. They live in the moment.
2007-02-10 02:17:49 · answer #4 · answered by zilmag 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
According to Heidegger, we only learn about death through feelings of anxiety (fear coming from no particular object). I guess we would have to ask whether animals are capable of having this feeling, which they may be. However, I have to wonder whether animals think conceptually at all, since this seems to imply the notion of symbols, which we have little evidence to support, aside from sign language among apes and such.
2007-02-10 00:52:56 · answer #5 · answered by Benjamin M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
many animals know when they are dying & go off by themselves so yes I believe they have a concept of death, just not in the same way humans do.
2007-02-09 22:14:17 · answer #6 · answered by kittycat lover 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Probably. Why not?
All those people who say "no" as if they know always leave a sick feeling in my stomach coz it's such arrogance that's ****** up the world. I know, this question asks what you THINK, but there are always people who act like they know when even zoologists could only guess at this. No amount of sitting and watching ANYONE is gonna tell you what s/he's thinking for sure.
2007-02-09 22:47:03 · answer #7 · answered by q 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It takes about 30 minutes for a pack of lions to devour a wild buffalo, for instance and the prey knows for sure it is going to die while being eaten alive. Likewise a pack of jackals will disembowel its prey while it is still alive. I feel sure the prey knows death is around the corner. Nature, alas, is cruel!
2007-02-09 22:12:57 · answer #8 · answered by jaidii_lok 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess is kind of different. I think they don't have the concept of morality, which is very important to us. But they miss in many ways the dead, like for example the elephants.
Good question!
2007-02-10 07:19:16 · answer #9 · answered by Aninha 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think they know when a member of their 'pack' or whatever is dead. They might sniff around and wait until they are sure, but they don't hang around. If they have to go, they go.
Pets understand death and cry and feel lonely.
2007-02-09 22:24:18 · answer #10 · answered by Konswayla 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋