Sentience

Unconscious Machines or Sentient Beings?

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• published: 30 Oct 2015
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Do animals hold consciousness, or do they simply exist through thoughtless instinctual responses? In today's episode of Vegan Talk we explore this question, taking a look at some of the various beliefs and attitudes surrounding animal consciousness, as well as how those beliefs often play a significant role in how animals are treated. Sources: Gary Steiner is an American moral philosopher, and the John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University. Steiner has published two books focusing on the moral status of animals, offering a historical exploration into the beliefs and attitudes surrounding animals in Western Philosophy. -Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: The Moral Status of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anthropocentrism-and-its-discontents-gary-steiner/1112053366?ean=9780822961192 -Animals and the Moral Community: Mental Life, Moral Status, and Kinship http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animals-and-the-moral-community-gary-steiner/1101966552?ean=9780231142342 Another note worthy book in regards to the history of cultural attitudes towards animals is Rob Boddice's “A History of Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Animals in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth Century Britain: Anthropocenterism and the Emergence of Animals”. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-history-of-attitudes-and-behaviours-toward-animals-in-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century-britain-rob-boddice/1117933528?ean=9780773449039 Chapters 17 and 18 of Margo DeMello's “Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies” focus on animal behavior studies and ethology, as well as the moral status of animals. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animals-and-society-margo-demello/1111428774?ean=9780231152952 Sue Savege-Rumbaugh who does research with Kanzi, who I address in this video, published a document in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science in 2007 called “Welfare of Apes in Captive Environments: Comments on, and by, a Specific Group of Apes.” You can read it below. https://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/684_welfareofapesincaptiveenv.pdf Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. In 1975 he published his now classic groundbreaking book “Animal Liberation”, a must read for anyone interested in animal ethics, rights, and liberation. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animal-liberation-peter-singer/1111455023?ean=9780061711305 Peter Singer also published paper called "Speciesisim and Moral Status" that drew focus on cognitive capacity and moral value. The paper brings attention to the fact that not all human's are neurologically typical, some have profound intellectual disabilities, and that this needs to be considered in the argument of cognitive capacity and value. Read it below. http://www.oswego.edu/~delancey/Singer.pdf Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado is one of the pioneering cognitive ethologists in the United States. In 2013 he published an article in Live Science, declaring it is time that animal sentience be recognized as a proven fact. Read it below. http://www.livescience.com/39481-time-to-declare-animal-sentience.html Note: I do not use Wikipedia as a source for my research, that said, below are a few links that provide brief summaries on some of the individual animals that I address in this video. I did not use these links in my research. I mentioned a dog that waited at a train station for his dead caretaker to return. That dog's name was Hachiko. You can read about him below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D I also share a video of a cat saving a little boy from a dog attack. For those skeptical of that video's authenticity, the cat's name is Tara. You can read more below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(cat)