A captive tiger. Picture credit: CC0 Creative Commons
The old view
Followers of René Descartes and of B. F. Skinner support the idea that animals are robotic creatures, only conditioned to respond automatically to stimuli to which they are exposed.
The view of animals as machines has been so simple in explaining their behaviour in utilitarian terms that it has spread throughout history all over the world. A religious component was also enforcing these views.
Certain animals are and have been historically venerated as divinities, but that has been true only in limited areas of the world. The majority of cultures in history believed humans to be the only animals feeling emotions because they had been created in the image of God.
Picture credit: CC0 Creative Commons
The new view
Science now believes all animals have primary and secondary emotion. The former wired into the evolutionary old limbic system, and the latter consisting of those emotions that are experienced or felt, evaluated, and reflected on. Secondary emotions would involve a higher brain activity in the cerebral cortex.
Many animals surely have primary emotions, since we share parts of our limbic system with them. The question of whether animals have secondary emotions, however, that still presents a challenge for science.
Because others' minds are private, including other humans, science can only examine the self-reflection abilities of animals through comparative and evolutionary research.
And despite science has evolved greatly in recent years, it is still hard to find a final answer on whether animals feel emotions the same way we do.
However, one thing is certain though. Whether is instinct or emotion, animals do experience joy, fear and anger, and this is clear to anybody who studies animal behaviour.
Alessandro Mascellino
Comments