Re: Emotions

"Charles Darwin believed that animals are emotional.
He observed emotions in animals and realized that
these behaviors, along with the morphological
characters needed for their expression, were
among many traits shared across species. To
Darwin, the emotional life of animals was
evident and undeniable, worthy of a book."

http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-editorials/editorial_2000_10.html

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:01:09 -0400, wkambic@xxxxxxx wrote:

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:23:47 -0700, "Laura Friedman" <lauranospamf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Given that animals, particularly our relatives chimps, share about 99% of
our DNA, and have brains that function in much the same ways as ours, it is
not unreasonable to expect their cognitive functions to share many
similarities with humans.

Perhaps not unreasonable, but quite unproven.

Yes, it's unproven that humans would have some
essential superiority over other species in the way
emotions are processed, but some humans are in
fact very intent on believing in human 'superiority'
whether there'd be any evidence for it or not.

I'm in agreement with Aunt Nasty that it's not that animals don't have
emotions, but that we humans ascribe too much "weight" to our own (ie:
rationalizing instinctual fear into something abstractly intellectual).
While horses certainly don't sit around and ponder, well, anything, they
certainly exhibit fear, excitement, and other emotions that on a primal
level are indistinguishable from what I see humans displaying.

Animals certainly do show a reaction to their environment IAW their
genetic and learned responses. We humans put names like "fear" and
"excitement" on them. To discuss them it's necessary to give them
language "tags." But the tag is only a convienience for discussion,
not a recognition that the tag is the same in human and non-human.

You don't have any evidence, however, that they'd be different.

Your intense desire to believe something doesn't make it fact.

I saw an amazing documentary-type show on PBS following a scientist who
treats people with unusual brain injuries. It is enlightening to see how the
physical affects the mental. One of the most interesting cases was a man
who, after a brain injury, had religious epiphanies constantly, at the most
banal occurrences. The doctor surmised (with excellent evidence), that our
drive towards understanding or perceiving a "supernatural" force was tied
with our ability to make "sense", or give a human interpretation, to what we
see and tough (as this was the area of his brain that had been injured).

Balderdash.

So you're going to take this up with the scientist(s) in question, right?

Religion as we know it was based upon our ancestors
trying to make sense of world that surpassed their understanding. Thus
we have all sorts of hoo-doo (ranging from worship of objects and
totems to orthadox Christianity to various forms of animism and spirit
worship). Postulating "brain injury" appeals to our modern scientific
(although often pseudo-scientific) bent, but over complicates the
whole matter.

On what would you base this claim?

Plenty of people avoid superstitious misperceptions,
so they have something going on that's more healthy
than those who don't avoid them.

http://jnnp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/75/4/640

A horse is a horse. It's a prey animal of the short grass steppe. It
has characteristics that has permitted humans to domesticate it and
press it into service. Neither more nor less.

Notice that some people are particularly desperate to claim
a lack of emotional responsiveness in those whom they seek
to exploit or abuse. Of course, some people even do this to
other humans. Notice how the horrific abuse of Iraqis by
the terrorists of the Bush crime organization doesn't seem
to register with its sycophant.


http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/animalemotions.htm


"a horse that, while swimming in a rushing river to try and save her colt, nudged a
stranger toward the safety of the shore before rescuing her foal..."

http://www.whozoo.org/AnlifeSS2001/serishoo/Are%20Chimpanzees%20Capable%20of.htm


"Studies of animal behavior now make it clear that these barriers are artificial and that
at least some animals display tool use, symbolic language, culture and cognition..."

http://www.animalbehavioronline.com/14.html


"Research by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has found that our furry relatives
may share many of the same emotions that humans experience in everyday life..."

http://pda.physorg.com/lofi-news-social-animals-humans_6250.html


Here's some more reading:

http://www.ips.com.pl/cgi-bin/opisy.cgi?019517805X&O
http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/best4.htm
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/Emotions.html
.

Relevant Pages

  • Animals have emotions, like Humans
    ... Animals and Human Experience the Same Emotions ... The link between humans and animals may be closer than we may have ... Dr Filippo Aureli, reader in Animal Behaviour and co-director of the ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: I wonder if my dog loves me
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    (uk.people.support.depression)
  • Re: Cool visual illusion
    ... >> complete understanding of how it works, just like all the enginners that ... And could studying the structure of the brain ... >reasonable to conclude that humans aren't really intelligent -- although, ... >intelligent all have emotions, then they are. ...
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  • Re: One Cow Crying
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    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Equine Cognative ability
    ... All animals HAVE emotions on some level - no one denies that surely - the debate is how closely, if at all, they mirror human emotions. ... Based on my observations of horses at liberty and at work in a variety of disciplines, in various places in the world, I'm a firm believer that animals do posses the same emotional depth humans do, and that most species have a lot more going on "between their ears" than we give them credit for. ...
    (rec.equestrian)
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