From: Adrian Teo (ateo@whitworth.edu)
Date: Mon Dec 23 2002 - 00:49:00 EST
Hello Bob,
You wrote:
I agree that one must guard against the pathetic fallacy, but that
doesn't mean that we should dismiss any emotion expressed by
an animal that
reminds us of human emotions as merely a biological
predisposition, as if
our own emotions did not have a biological component. I
think the argument
may stem on whether there is a continuum between emotions
expressed by some
animals and those expressed by humans. I was not predisposed
to believe,
and I have given up believing, that there is a clean break
between humans
and other mammalian species in this respect.
AT: We don't know if animals experience emotions the way we
do. And even if they do, it is likely to be only the simpler, less
cognitively involved emotions such as anger, fear, pleasure. Others
emotions such as guilt and shame, require higher cognitive
capacities, which may be beyond even higher primates. Bottom line is
that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that animals have the
same notions of justice, fairness, love as we do.
Blessings,
ADrian.
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