| |
RCR wrote, quoting Povinelli:
http://geowords.com/lostlinks/b36/7.htm
Even though chimpanzees pass the mirror test, they do not seem to conceive of others' -- or even their own -- mental states by Daniel J. Povinelli.
Primates and other animals clearly feel emotions. This seems to raise the question as to whether nonhuman animals are aware of emotions in other nonhuman animals.
The answer seems fairly obvious. But first, let's question 1) how aware are children of the emotional states of others, and 2) by what means do they attain this awareness?
Nonhuman animals often exhibit the same awareness, more or less, and acquire it by the same means, more or less, as children.
Let me begin with a point on which Gordon Gallup, Jr., and I agree: the reactions of chimpanzees when they see themselves in mirrors reveal that these animals possess a self-concept. Furthermore, we agree that this self-concept appears to be restricted to the great apes and humans. Beyond this point, however, our views diverge. Gallup speculates that the capacity for self-recognition may indicate that chimpanzees are aware of their own internal, psychological states and understand that other individuals possess such states as well.
I have come to doubt this high-level interpretation of the chimpanzees' reactions to seeing themselves in mirrors. More generally, I question whether chimpanzees possess the deep psychological understanding of behavior that seems so characteristic of our species.
That is the wrong question to ask. One would not expect "deep psychological understanding of behavior" in the same way a far more intelligent species like humans would exhibit.
But even then, do primates and other animals exhibit SOME understanding of the emotional states of their own or even other species, perhaps on the level of a young child? I think the primate studies indicate this. For that matter, animals studies in the wild suggest such awareness.
In what follows, I describe why I have come to this conclusion, and I offer an explanation of how humans and chimpanzees can behave so similarly and yet understand this behavior in radically different ways.
[snip]
Daniel J. Povinelli.directs the center's division of behavioral biology, which studies cognitive development in both chimpanzees and young children. Over the years Povinelli has become a friend and colleague of Gallup's, but his view of the chimpanzee's mental abilities has diverged from that of his mentor. "It took a lot of patience on the part of the chimpanzees," he says, "but they've finally taught me that they're not hairy human children."
No, and it is a mistake to assume that because other animals do not behave exactly like humans that they can have no awareness of the emotional states of others.
The right question to ask is: How much do young children know about the emotions of others and how do the attain that awareness?
I believe the answer is: No more than many animals, and they attain it the same way animals obtain it, by observing and interpreting the behavior of others.
If animals had no awareness of the emotional states of others, we would have to interpret a screeching band of angry chimps as either a random event--they just all happened to screech at the same time--or as a conditioned response instead of an awareness that other chimps are actually upset.
Animals are not humans. But I'm astonished at how far people go to deny that they have intelligence, abstract thought, consciousness, self-awareness, and awareness of the emotional states of others of their species.
Anyone who has ever had a dog whose behavior is a reflection of our mood can answer this at least anecdotally. I've seen dogs go to a person who is quietly grieving and place their heads, uncharacteristically, in the lap of that person, an act both of awareness and comforting.
Nathan Hawking
|
|
