Not Simply Machines
Lesley J. Rogers
Routledge eBooks March 5, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429498923-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the question of animal consciousness has a long history, including Descartes's seventeenth-century view of animals as automata, and that because consciousness is subjective, few scientists have attempted to measure it. Proposes that consciousness may be manifested in self-awareness, awareness of others, intentional behavior and communication, deception, and mental and symbolic representation. |
Abstract
Considerable numbers of people in the Western world believe that animals are little more than machines, albeit more or less complex ones depending on the species. In the seventeenth century, René Descartes described humans as conscious beings and animals as automata, machines. There are new aspects of the debate about consciousness, but the issue of consciousness in animals has had a very long history. Consciousness is so subjective that scientists might speculate in their spare moments or in conversations with each other whether it exists but very few of them have conducted experiments or made observations that attempt to measure this mysterious thing we call &s;consciousness&s;. Consciousness may be manifested in self-awareness; awareness of others; intentional behaviour, including intentional communication; deception of others; and in the ability to make mental and symbolic representations. There is every possibility that machines of the future will process information in an even more human-like way.