Human-Animal Relationships 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. Since animals, especially dogs, share similar emotions as people they to make great companions. Animals do show us how to love better, because their emotions are more pure than a human's. According to Mary Lou Randour, in "What Animals Can Teach Us About Spirituality", animals are spiritual companions to humans. She tells the story of a boy who, after murdering someone, receives a dog to care for as a form of therapy. The dog comforts him, and the teenager learns to love the animal over time. The boy's pet is "healing his soul" by teaching him how to love. Dogs give their masters unconditional love, never questioning the human's orders or disciplines. I thought the story of the dog appearing in the author's backyard as her dead grandfather was rather outlandish. All of Randour's examples of how animals influence our feelings were viable aside from the disappearing ghost dog. Although their minds are not as advanced as a human's, animals are still capable of thought. Frans de Waal, author of "The Whole Animal", feels that humans and animals are closely related, through anthropomorphism. I agree with anthropomorphism, but not with anthropodenial. I also disagree with Rene Descartes' statement that animals are machines, because just as humans have different individual personalities, animals of the same species also have different behavioral characteristics. For example, some cats are arrogant and rude, while others are kind and playful, just like people. Georgia, the chimpanzee who spit water on unsuspecting visitors, did not do this out of instinct. Instinct would have told her to swallow the water.
Something such as, if the pet was hurt, hungry or needed something and they could express to the owner for that specific need could be very beneficial. Although, as humans are very sensitive and have a lot of harsh outcomes in life, it can also be very painful for animals to go through deaths, bad moments, and even everyday life. Hermes and Apollo are Gods who believe in such different areas. The percentage of dogs that lived a happy life compared to the ones who did not is very significant. Dogs, or any animal, should not have human intelligence.
First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans, by Katherine Rogers, articulates the history of the relationship between dogs and humans. Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, investigates if and how dogs exhibit morality. In both texts, anecdotes and observations are used to portray instances of dogs displaying cooperation, empathy, altruism, and, by extension, morality. Consequently, it stands to reason that dogs have a capacity for sociality, but how can the sociality of dogs be described? A dog’s capacity for sociality is the ability to form long term relationships with members of the same or other species. Dogs, in particular, dogs who hunt as well as dogs who play, are able to form long term relationships with humans and other dogs through trust, love,
Rene Descartes views humans and animals on completely separate levels. He claims that animals do not possess intelligence and only act through their nature. While humans can perform a multitude of tasks by reasoning, animals can only carry out tasks where nature has given them the skills to do so. One of Descartes’ main arguments about animal’s inability to reason is that they are unable to communicate. If animals are born with the same general organ structure as humans, what’s stopping them from communicating with us? To Descartes, it’s their lack of intelligence. Sure parrots and some other animals can mimic human sounds and words, but they lack the ability to think about what they are saying.
In 1961, Dr. Boris Levinson, a child psychologist, became the “accidental” pioneer for animal therapy. One day he left his dog, Jingles, alone with one of his young, uncommunicative patients. When Dr. Levinson came back, the child was smiling and talking to the dog (Altschiller 3). This just shows how quick and monumental the effect of an animal can be. He believed that therapy animals provided, “unconditional acceptance and love” and they offered “a secure and warm environment for children and other patients, increasing their ability to adapt better psychologically to other people”...
“Do animals have emotions?” When animal lovers and pet owners are asked this question, the answer is a quick and definite, “Yes!” For others, the answer isn 't so simple. Many of the researchers that had reservations, spent their time wondering what dogs (and other animals) were capable of feeling, or if they were capable of feeling anything at all. Since these researchers were unable to put feelings under a microscope, their research lead no where, and they remained skeptics. To the contrary,Marc Bekoff, author of several books including The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy and Why They Matter, begins his research three decades ago with the question, “What does it feel like to be a
When Pepperberg began her dialogue with Alex, who died last September at the age of 31, many scientists believed animals were incapable of any thought. They were simply machines, robots programmed to react to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree. We
Armbruster, K. (2002). “Good Dog”: The stories we tell about our canine companions and what they mean for humans and other animals, 38 (4), 351, 26. Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/PLL/
... and faithfulness that cannot be found from any other source. Even the most hardened of hearts can be touched by a cold wet nose or a comforting snuggle. Pets seem to be able to recognize and adapt to many of the conditions placed on them in our human environment. They can provide the sense of companionship, and love that is lacking in regular human relationships.
It is nearly impossible to say whether non-human animals are intelligent. Most studies, in this field of psychology, were carried out on primates, and it is thought that these animals are naturally superior. It seems most behaviour in the research discussed in this essay can be explained through association learning, therefore not actually a result of intelligence. It is difficult to falsify whether animals are intelligent or not because, although they are able to solve problems they only show some aspects to suggest ToM.
] Some animals might be intelligent and may not be so intelligent because some animals might run into the street and if they don't that means I they are smart are just trained to do that. Sometimes animals might just have the to run in the street for a
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.
To her, at least, he has more emotions than we do. All these thoughts came into my mind when I saw this question. And my answer was… it is human consciousness is no way different from animal consciousness till I started reading about this online.
The interactions with the family shows common struggles and the description of how the dog reacts gives off a sense of hope and safety. Often during times of distress people use religion as a way of coping with problems. The dog in the story is “. . . turned over upon his back, and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his ears and his eyes he offered a small prayer to the child”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog") this happens several times in the story which usually brings the little boy happiness. The dog also allowed the child to occasionally take out anger on it even when no reason was given. The dog played a safe haven that allowed the boy to believe things will get better shown here: “When misfortune came upon the child, and his troubles overwhelmed him, he would often crawl under the table and lay his small distressed head on the dog 's back. The dog was ever sympathetic”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog"). The story eventually ends with the dog 's death by the hands of the child 's father here: “The father of the family paid no attention to these calls of the child, but advanced with glee upon the dog...He rolled over on his back and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his eyes and his ears he offered up a small prayer...the father was in a mood for having fun, and it occurred to him that it would be a fine thing to throw the dog out of the window”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog"). Even before the dog 's last moments he uses religion as hope that the father will stop his violence but instead the father tossed that hope away once he grabbed the dog to toss it out the
So in closing I believe there is far more evidence that proves animals are in fact emotional beings that have feelings, than that they are just living creatures that are here on earth with us as food or pets.
In most time, culture is regarded as the product of human work. It could be the reason why the word “Culture” originates from Latin meaning farming. Interestingly, some researchers believe that culture is not the only possession of mankind because it seems to exist in animals as well after investigating their cultural behaviors. With the rapid development of anthropology and other related disciplines, scholars can gradually tell the difference between animal and human cultures and even generalize why human culture is quite unique. Therefore, when animal culture is in debate, it is usually judged much strictly from a human culture perspective as Laland and Hoppitt (2003:150) believed. This essay will argue that chimpanzees do not have their own culture at present even though there are evidences can show they are capable of social learning, and it is not clearly indicated that the variations in group behaviours are directly caused by socially transmitted cultural learning.