In society today there has been a lot of talk about animal intelligence and how they and we interact with them. Many pet owners believe that their pet is intelligent and compassionate, but some people and scientist don’t believe it's true. Well, I believe animals are intelligent and compassionate, but don’t have a sense of awareness of their actions. Irene Pepperberg did and experiment to try and show how smart animals are. She bought herself a bird and tried to teach it to talk like we do because she thought, “if he learned to communicate, I could ask him questions about how he sees the world,” and that’s just what she taught him. She taught him how to speak like humans and he developed the concept of speaking and replying correctly. She …show more content…
For instance many other scientists believe animals are incapable of any thoughts or feelings. They think animals are like robots and are lacking emotions. While this may seem reasonable it’s not. Animals do have feelings and are intelligent just in different ways that we were taught. This doesn’t mean animals are a completely different creature it means, we may not be the same but we do have many similarities. We both have some of the same challenges we face in our life span such as finding a mate, food, and shelter. Finally, the most compelling evidence that supports animals are intelligent and compassionate comes from Irene Pepperberg and Jane Goodall. They both showed evidence of they key signs of humans and compared it to animals. The key signs were: good memory, grammar and spelling, self-awareness, understanding others’ actions, imitating others, and being creative. Since humans develop all these concepts it came clear after experiments, animals develop it too. Animals do share certain similarities with humans and should be considered as one too. Humans and animals are a lot alike and it not fair to them that we think of them as a creature of some sort, we should think and treat them just the same as we would like to be treated. We are all mammals are are all intelligent and compassionate like other mammals. Just like Anthony Douglas once said, “There are many great minds on Earth but not all are
Watch out dolphins because you may no longer be the most intelligent animals anymore! Elephants, one of our lands largest creatures, are taking your spot! In the video, Elephants Show Cooperation, the article, Elephants Can Lend a Helping Trunk, and the passage, from Elephants Know When They Need a Helping Trunk in a Cooperative Task, the authors illustrate the intelligence of these pachyderms. They all show an experiment that proves this claim. Elephants “join the elite club of social cooperators: chimpanzees, hyenas, rooks, and humans.” Their cognitive ability even surprises the researchers. They not only make wise decisions, but also work well with their companions. All three sources depict the sagacity of these remarkable creatures.
As I mentioned, I disagree with Carruthers reasoning. First and foremost, I think he contradicts himself. He says that animals are capable of suffering and feeling pain and emotions at a conscious level. So if they are capable of that, just as humans are, then why are they not considered rational agents with moral standing? They may be different from us in many ways, but if you break it down at a really basic level there are similarities. [Try to explain these similarities if
It is apparent that there are many philosophers that stand on both sides of the argument. One side is clearly expressing that while there may be some overlap between the human species and nonhuman species, we are not equal because of the concept of rationality, for example. However, I see Singer’s arguments as much stronger than the other philosophers. He draws on many solid points backed up by concrete evidence that is easily understandable on many points, pulling from different experiences and true events. I defend Singer’s view that nonhuman animals are equal to human beings because he points cannot be discounted, but more heavily supported the more he digs into them.
...e animals by some schools of thought and that all animals have some human qualities and characteristics as well.
The belief of human superiority, also known as anthropocentrism, is vague and a biased opinion. It can be thought of like the idea of racial, gender or religious supremacy. People cannot go and compare themselves as a whole and animals if they have little understanding about how animals, other than them, think. As humans, they would like to think of themselves as important, but in most cases people think they, as a species, are the most impo...
Doctors and scientists have recognized that while animals are somewhat biologically similar to humans, they are not exactly identical. (Animal Testing- A Necessary Evil? 2014) The EOInternational stated:
Millions of years of evolution have taken us from a single cell to a genetically unique animal we now call humans. This progression and advancement has taken us from beings with no language or sense of thought, to what is now an extremely advanced human race, exploring the world as we know it. In Human Dignity, Francis Fukuyama explains the concepts of what makes an animal human. This can be a very hard concept to grasp and even Fukuyama cannot give a clear answer. Fukuyama agrees that there is not solely one characteristic that makes an animal human, it a group of elements, which he calls Factor X. These elements are what should ultimately give animals the right to be treated with dignity, honor, and respect. If animals can develop an advanced
Monkey see, monkey do. Apes have always been thought to have an increased level of intelligence. Over the years, researchers have attempted to understand the degree of intelligence these primates possess. However, it is essential to understand the definition of intelligence in order to determine the amount of intelligence primates have. Intelligence is the capability of obtaining knowledge and being able to utilize it in everyday situations. There are many hypotheses that focus on the evolution of intelligence in primates that view a number of factors including brain size and modernism. Primate intelligence has been a topic of interest to many because it will allow us to further understand the close relationship between humans and primates. Additionally, we will be able to understand the difference between human and primate cognition. Some studies suggest that the human and primate brains possess many similarities. This demonstrates why primates tend to respond to stimuli in a manner that is closely related to humans. Researchers have conducted a number of studies in an effort to understand primate cognition.
In 1977 Irene Pepperberg, a recent graduate of Harvard University, did something very bold. At a time when animals still were considered automatons, she set out to find what was on another creature’s mind by talking to it. She brought a one-year-old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language. “I thought if he learned to communicate, I could ask him questions about how he sees the world.”
Works Cited Griffin, Donald R. Animal Minds: From Cognition to Consciousness. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Patterson, Francine, and Eugene Linden. The Education of Koko. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1981.
In the article “No, animals don’t have rights” (2014), the author argues that the movement for animals rights is reducing humans to animals, or upgrading animals to humans. However, this is not entirely true, humans are also animals, but with a higher degree of intelligence. In the article “Yes, animals have feelings” (2014), has shown that most scientists agree that vertebrates animals are, to different degrees, sentient. Humans can’t understand what they feel exactly, but we can notice their change in behavior and emotion. Animals are responsive and expressive, they have their intentions and preferences. Opponents believe that animals don 't have rights or that even if they do, those rights should count for less than human desires; others believe giving animals rights would demean humanity and animal rights must be rejected; also, that human welfare is more important than animal welfare, interests of animals should be overruled when necessary. A research by the Clever Dog Lab at the University of Vienna, shows that dogs, just like humans, glance at the left side of the human face first, this is where the bilateral brains exhibit more emotion. Therefore, dogs rapidly read mood and intentions. A research led by Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trento, found that dogs were relaxed when they watched videos of dogs wagging their tails mainly to the
Has it ever crossed your mind what it would be like to be a laboratory animal? Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in U.S labs every year. You've most likely heard of animal testing but perhaps aren't completely sure what it is. Animal testing is the experimentation carried out on animals used to "assess the safety and effectiveness of everything from medication to cosmetics, as well as understanding how the human body works." However, there is more that goes on behind the scenes throughout these experimentations. Overall, it is more often than not cruel, produces inaccurate results, is immoral, and should be banned; allow me to elaborate.
Animal rights are defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “rights (as to fair and humane treatment) regarded as belonging fundamentally to all animals.” But what do they mean by “all animals”? Is there a different protocol for every specie? Is there an invisible line drawn to state what rights animals have? You have to decide.
Animal rights have unequivocally been a major concern amongst humans for some time now. Animal rights are based on the notion that non-human animals should be allowed to live freely: free from abuse and suffering, as humans are. The extreme issue amongst humans is whether or not non-human animals have the capacity for rationality to deserve such equal consideration. When examining the issue of animal rights, one may have come to question one’s psyche on whether or not animal rights are ethical.
Animals can be perceived in many different ways. While some humans consider animals to be mindless machines programmed with instinct, others view them as spiritual creatures capable of coherent thought and emotions. I feel that animals are somewhere in the middle. Although they rely heavily on instinct, the ability to feel emotions shows that their mental capacity is not far from that of a human.