Which animals are conscious of their own existence?

Question

We generally accept that humans are conscious of their own existence - but what about other living things? What do you think is the "cut-off point" between those living things which are and those which aren't? For example: are ants aware of existence? Are plants? Plankton?

mr bigs - plants bend towards light and venus fly-traps snap closed, but aren't these just automatic responses? Similarly, the fight or flight response doesn't imply awareness of existence.

Dawacky L - I am not saying that ants are or are not conscious of their own existence, I am just raising the question. If we look at the natural world we see much complexity, but we don't necessarily equate this to consciousness. What is a brain after all other than another complex creation of nature?

Answer 1

Good question! Consciousness in man is unquestionably connected with the brain but it is by no means follows that a brain is indispensable to consciousness. The lower we go in the animal series, the more nervous system centers are simplified and separate from one another, and at last they disappear altogether, merge in the several mass of an orgabism with hardly any differentiation. If then at the top of the scale of living beings, consciousness is attached to very complicated nervous centers, must we not suppose that it accompanies the nervous system down its whole descent, and that when at last the nerve stuff is merged in the yet undifferentiated living matter, consciousness, is still there, diffused, confused, but not reduced to nothing.

Theoretically, every thing living might be conscious. In principle, consciousness is coextensive with life.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 2

Good question. I starred it.

As for the answer - how can we tell with animals which do not speak (or otherwise communicate structured thoughts)?

On observation alone, I think some sort of self-consciousness goes quite a way down the evolutionary tree, in mammals at least. Animals can "lie" - pretending they haven't been fed, to scrounge more. When I play bird with my cat and he fails to "kill" my hand, he definitely feels embarrassed. He is a bad loser. He also plans for the future, to a limited extent. At bedtime, when he has already been fed, he cries for more (which he doesn't want and won't eat yet) to make sure I put his midnight snack out for him. Only when he has seen the food set out will he take to the catflap and the outdoors. Like all animals, when he has to go to the vet he is as apprehensive as I am before a visit to the dentist, and will escape to avoid it if he can.

After being fooled a time or two, the dog I had when I was a teenager definitely knew who it was in the mirror, and that he could use reflections to locate people and objects behind him.

In this, or a related context,some people distinguish between animals (like people) capable of choice and those (like, allegedly, dogs) which are automata, responsive only to a narrow range of stimuli and capable only of a small repertoire of innate and learned behaviour. The consensus seems to be that when a b itch is on heat she cannot, unlike a woman, stop herself mating: faced with a receptive female, the dog has likewise no choice. It's hard to see how the behaviourists know this. One example of a dog choosing to heed his master's whistle when after a moment's pleasure would blow the theory out of the water. Any information, anybody?

It is beyond doubt that some sort of more primitive consciousness exists even in the "lower" animals - they feel pain, for instance. To what extent a fish has emotions I don't think anyone knows.

I don't know the answers, I admit, except to say that if plants feel pain, where does this leave the vegetarians?

Answer 3

I always groan at these questions, we underestimate animal's intelligence so badly it's pathetic...

Anyway here is an example of ants you might find interesting, ants have learnt, in a desert how to milk a very small greefly type insect, collecting the honey due type milk that they produce and giving it to their young. This is very "advanced" thinking.

I think it really depends on whether an animal has a brain or not and what the brain's function is. Some creatures have either no brain or a very small one that its function is to perform basic skills for survival. Then brains become more complex. I dont think it's necessarily size either. I think that people believe that the smaller the animal the more stupid it is or the less concious it is. This is hard to tell.

I think animals that show themselves off to attract a mate are definately concious of their own existance or they wouldnt worry about presenting themselves right.

They may not have a global vision of themselves, but they may have a smaller picture such as how they fit into their territory, the land, or recognise their differences against other creatures.

Answer 4

GREAT question. I guess it is a matter of opinion right now since science is not yet capable of giving us data that supports the opinions one way or the other.
But my opinion is, many of the larger species like some birds, elephants, dogs and cats, whales, and who knows what others, know sometimes of their own existence. Then I think it slips away from them, to return another time.
Elephants can identify their own relatives. They do not however go looking for the "Kunte Kinte" in their family tree. The songs of whales sometimes last 2 years, and may be their way of finding their relatives, but they do not create family trees--that we know of. It could be oral, but that is giving them more credit than we have knowledge of.
Dogs get help when their owner is down and hurt, but they do not pat themselves on the back, and retell the story to their "friends and family." They probably forget within hours that they were heros.
All we know of them at this point is that they do not pass on a "civilization" on which their progeny build. They live, as author Loren Eiseley wrote, in an "eternal present."
This subject takes up two chapters in my book.

Answer 5

I would assume that anything with a brain and a central nervous system was conscious of its own existence... but I don't think animal are capable of abstract though.

I would assume animal are conscious of their existence... they must be seeing they all have BASIC survival instincts. Any animal capable of having a "reaction" reflex, must have an awareness and be conscious of its own existence in order to execute a reaction.

I would say that plants are not conscious or aware of existing because they don't have an awareness of pain or react to stimuli do they? They don't have a brain or nervous system. They don't have reflexes or react immediately to stimuli.

Sometimes is seems that mankind isn't capable of thinking, and is incapable of abstract thought. Plodding along not being very aware of anything.... very insular and not conscious of the "bigger" picture.

Answer 6

We are blessed with knowledge that we acquire though reflective consciousness. Unlike animals when we find something we seek to improve upon our finding, when we become aware of something we tend to remember so that we could become better aware. We seek to find things better and better in all aspects of our life, we aim to see the best in everything; we innately need to see and realise that there is nothing else in existence aside us or at least the likes of us. This unique awareness of our individual being sets us apart from the rest of the habitants of the general nature of things. The question, therefore, is who we really are? What spirit inhabits as higher mind in an otherwise animalistic frame of a reptilian brains, the type just like our animal cousins?

But first lets look around a bit, as I find it quite ironic that super bug is found where it is lest likely to be found, in the hospitals, places of medically most advanced practice, and not in some dense forests or dungeons of deep caverns in earth far from cultured and sanctified human habits. Microorganisms respond to foreign intervention and mutate into more sturdy forms ever. Their rate of reproduction rate, that is much faster than more complex living organisms, enables them to do just that – ordinary bacterium, for instance, can have a regeneration period every twenty or so minutes.

All living organisms, in their own specific way, are conscious of their being. Animals for instance can be wonderful pets only because they become associated to people and their places. The reason that they seem to be lacking awareness of some type could be due tot fact that their potential to be themselves is realised to the maximum; that they have reached the peak of their evolution, consumed all their natural capacity to evolve, and have become fixed in the way they are. Or could this be true that their awareness is set upon a different tile scale, a scale much longer than those of the microbial. But, they might not be able to start responding to environmental changes around caused by fast human activity in time.

We are conscious of our existence in a way that no other living form in our observation is; we are not only conscious of ourselves as an environment, but we are also conscious of ourselves, that we exist first and than we exist in an environment. And if we understand that we are an entity essentially separate from where we are, the general nature of our world unchanging and fixed, then we can see that we could change where we are as two thing cannot be the same, or one thing could make the less suitable thing more suitable for being together. We change and later the place where we are beyond our natural needs after our likings the we induce from our sense of being better than all that is there about us in our world. Whereas animals do not attempt to change the environment that they are beyond their natural needs because they have no consciousness of their being.

Answer 7

I have wondered about animals but along a different route.

I just spent a 6 weeks in an RV on a farm in Bavaria. I watched horses and cows in the pasture, ducks walking around the farm yard and I wondered are they social to any degree? Do they communicate, do they want to? Or do they just stand there and eat grass all day in the weather and rain?

It can be very depressing watching animals and thinking human thoughts. I am glad I am not a cow.
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Answer 8

well, i think that the more intelligent the animal, the higher chance of consciousness of existence it has. we are on the top of the intelligence chain, and then chimps, dolphins, rats so on. my rat looks in the mirror and sees nothing. my cat looks in the mirror and you can tell she is aware of her being. but what animals have thoughts? i believe that chimpanzees and dolphins have small thoughts in their heads besides the ones all animals are given-(eat, run, mate) they can befriend humans, and look foward to greeting each other. therefore, a friend is an intelligent thought. as well as dogs, cats, rats, bunnies, horses. these animals are generally kept as pets becasue of their ability to remember you, as a friend. snakes, fish, and turtles probably could care less, until feeding time. i think it may have something to do with the way they care for their young, as to how intelliegent they are, or what thoughts they process. o just for kicks, plants have no thought process, and neither do plankton.

Answer 9

Hello,

(ANS) In my opinion only humans & the higher primates have whats termed reflexive consciousness (Apes, mountain gorillas, chimps and bonobos,etc).

**Reflexive consciousness is the term used to describe a creature having evolved to the point where it is self aware, meaning aware of its surroundings, of space & time and aware that it is aware. Knows it exists and that it lives.

**Simple consciousness, Next level down is simple consciousness:- such as horses, dogs, cats, some monkeys etc. These creatures are only aware of "now" they have no conception of past or future (they don't have a reflexive awareness). They live mainly in built instinct alone.

**The most basic awareness is of simple celled creates like worms, ants, plankton.

Ivan

Answer 10

Yes i think all animals have a consciousness of being alive, but none anywhere near as advanced as ours - no animal has ever questioned WHY they are alive, WHAT that means to them, and HOW that effects their place in the world, like we do. That is what separates us from animals, we have a powerful imagination that makes us question our existence, this site is ironically a good example of how humans are never happy unless they're questioning things!