Animal cognition and consciousness

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Animal cognition and consciousness
Cognition Focus on experimental work Emphasises
information-processing accounts of rational
mind Animal as problem-solver Only interested
in objective measures of cognition Detached and
quantitative approach
Consciousness Focus on field work and personal
relationships Emphasises intersubjective accounts
of experiential and embodied mind Animal as
subject Focus on understanding subjective
experience Empathic relationship approach
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Philosophical dualism

• Since C17 science characterised by mechanism,
  atomism, rationalism
• Mind and body separate, so rationality associated
  only with mental not physical
• Separation between subject and object reason
  separate from world
• Thought is characterised by abstract mental
  representations

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The cognitivist perspective

• Cognition is information processing and consists
  of symbol manipulation
• Cartesian split between mentalism and realism
• Knowledge is a matter of the correct
  representation of facts and objects out there
  in the world

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The cognitivist perspective
Computer-mind metaphor emphasises mind and
interaction as information
Processing
Input
Output
Abstracts thinking from physical and social
context, less willing to explore unconscious,
emotional aspects of thought, considers organism
as essentially passive
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Embodied approaches to mind

• More embodied concepts of mind reject split
  between thought and action/behaviour
• Instead of focus on thinking as being mainly
  abstract and rational, emphasis on fact that
  thought is largely unconscious (see Lakoff,
  Johnson)
• Abstract concepts are structured by basic bodily
  and perceptual processes
• Assumes large role of social and physical context
  in shaping experience and thought

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Embodied approaches to mind

• Thought is structured by basic image schemata,
  e.g. up-down, inside-outside, force etc
• Suggests thought is preconceptual and
  metaphorical (connection between physical and
  mental)
• Expressed in language, gesture and communication,
  e.g. let out your anger give out the
  information (inside-outside schema).

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Experiential approach
Objectivist approach mind and body
separate rationality and emotion
separate consciousness private and
subjective Scientific study of mind
impossible lay accounts of no value Animals as
passive machine focus on behaviour (3rd person
approach)
Experiential approach mind tied to body
behaviour Emotion part of thought consciousness
shown in animal-world relationship Scientific
study of mind possible essential Critical
anthropomorphism Animal as active explorer of
environment focus on mental states (1st person
approach)
Philosophical position
Method
Implications
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Doing mind subjectivity and intersubjectivity

• Distinction between objective and subjective
  accounts hinges on split between thought and
  behaviour
• Verstehen approach seeing actions as
  meaningful to the actors and as showing
  subjectivity
• Can we have pragmatic and critical
  anthropomorphism that searches for similarities
  based on similarities in experience?

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References

• Lakoff, G. Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in
  the Flesh The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to
  Western Thought. New York Basic Books.
• Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind The
  Bodily Bases of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason.
  Chicago University of Chicago Press. 
• Wemelsfelder, F. (1997). The scientific
  validity of subjective concepts in models of
  animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour
  Science, 53, 67-70.

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Reading for next session

• Dupre, J. (1996). The mental lives of nonhuman
  animals. In M. Bekoff D. Jamieson (eds.),
  Readings in Animal Cognition. MIT Press.
• Shettleworth, S.J. (2001). Animal cognition and
  animal behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 61, 277-286.
• Any sources on experimental studies of cognition
  in nonhumans, e.g. studies on theory of mind,
  mirror self-recognition, imitation, tool use,
  social cognition etc