Epistemology The principle of charity, qualia, and philosophy 6 Sep 20116 Sep 2011 I’ve hurt my back, so I aim to rant a little. When I teach critical reasoning just about the first thing I teach is the principle of charity. It has many formulations: This policy calls on us to fit our own propositions (or our own sentences) to the other person’s… Read More
Biology David Hull’s philosophy 12 Aug 2010 David Hull was one of the first graduates from the University of Indiana’s HPS program. During that program he attended a seminar with Karl Popper in the course of which he wrote a paper on essentialism in biology. Popper took it upon himself to send this, without telling Hull, to… Read More
John, where do you draw the line on which animals have consciousness? Obviously a lot homo sapiens have it. Not all of course. Do you think the other great Apes have some level of consciousness? What about other mamals like dogs and cats? I reckon my cat knows what he’s up to, and he spends an bit of time in front of the mirror admiring his reflection. Some birds seem to be pretty good at problem solving, e.g. corvids, but does that mean they have any consciousness? And then there’s those cephalopods beloved by PZ?
Seriously that’s a complex question. The short answer is that I think there is no single state or property of consciousness, so no boundary. It depends on what you are tracking.
Fair enough, that’s how I see it. I was just asking after you mentioned that chickens have no consciousness. I don’t think chickens are up there in introspection and internal life, but I have no idea if they do or don’t ponder the existential angst of a diet of snails or pellets. Probably unlikely.
Speaking of zombies, I’ve seen a chicken dance (well, run around like …) after a voodoo priest bit its head off. But I couldn’t figure out what it was thinking. Probably, it just wanted to be loved.