Quote:
Originally Posted by idi banashapan
it could suggest an awareness of their own mortality. However, I see staying alive for most other animals as being instinctive rather than as a result of contemplating self-mortality, as is mating (the animal doesn't know why it's doing it, it just has the urge and overwhelming drive to do so). I don't believe frogs, for example, wonder about what might happen when they die, or consider in depth what they should do in life before passing on. They, like most animals, go about their business as part of instinctive or learned behavioural patterns. animals and humans alike, regardless of cognitive ability, tend to live by the 'freeze, flight or fight' rule. these three reactions, in that order, are a direct result of a perceived threat to the self, absolutely. but because an animal contemplates mortality as humans do? I don't think so..
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I agree to a point, especially about lower order organisms.
But when you start looking at some mammals and birds I'm not so sure. It's not all just " instinct".
If you've ever observed a cat, for instance, they are very measured, they weigh up,their surroundings, they make clear decisions based on the inputs around them.
What about chimps, you can't say they just run on instinct? They are every much self aware.
Birds!, crows, magpies etc show proper reasoning and problem solving skills. Not just Instinct.
Do they lock themselves away and ponder the meaning of life. Who knows, cavemen probably didn't. The luxury to ponder the meaning life probably came when we didn't have to think about surviving from day to day.
It's interesting because we can never really know what an animal is thinking, and even if we could hear their thoughts their point of reference to existence would be so far removed from ours we wouldn't understand it anyway.