Response to "Headaches."

Response #7

In Mary Marcil's bog, she talks about the discussion we had in class pertaining to human and animal pain/suffering. If we experience a headache, we are in pain which turns into suffering. That suffering still exists even if we are too distracted to notice. The question was whether animals experience the same thing. Can they be aware of themselves but get distracted from their awareness? Mary finds this believable, especially when the memory spans of an animal are taken into consideration. She says, "It is ompletely reasonable that they might forget they are aware in order to focus on something important like escaping a predator or feeding their young." If an animal has a short memory span, it is possible that they were aware, at one point, of their pain even if it does not last very long. Mary asks, "Are there times when we can absolutely tell if an animal is self-aware?"

Like in the video we watched in class, we know animals are self-aware if they look into a mirror and realize the image is of themselves. Dolphins, apes, and elephants are certainly self-aware but it is hard to tell if other animals are as well. When an animal grooms itself, it is aware of itself been groomed. Also, when one animal wants to prove to another its affection, most of the time, if it is a mammal or a bird, it shows this by by grooming that animal. Sometimes, when animals are feeling stress, they take it out in themselves, much like humans do. Parrots pluck their feathers and dogs chase and chew their tails. These are signs of self-punishments that can only be seen in beings with a developed sense of the self. Self awareness is proven through animal behaviors such as status, pride, self esteem, territoriality, self punishment, self love, supremacy, and submission. It is complicated to know for sure which animals are self aware, but by simple observations, sometimes we just know they are more aware than they let on.

My question to you is: What makes some animals seem more self aware than others and in what ways does the intelligence level of an animal relate to self awareness?