The Animal Mind

Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II The Evidence Of Mind 6. Inferring Mind from Behavior In the last chapter we saw that some recent writers upon animal behavior and its interpretation, while refusing to admit the presence of consciousness in all forms of animal life, yet hold that it can be proved to exist in certain forms. The latter, it is maintained, display certain peculiarities of behavior that may be regarded as proofs of a psychic accompaniment. Into the nature of these proofs we may now inquire. To begin with, can it be said that when an animal makes a movement in response to a certain stimulus, there is an accompanying consciousness of the stimulus, and that when it fails to move, there is no consciousness ? Is response to stimulation evidence of consciousness ? In the case of man, we know that absence of visible response does not prove that the stimulus has not been sensed; while it is probable that some effect upon motor channels always occurs when consciousness accompanies stimulation, the effect may not be apparent to an outside observer. On the other hand, if movement in response to the impact of a physical force is evidence of consciousness, then the ball which falls under the influence of gravity and rebounds on striking the floor is conscious. Nor is the case improved if we point out that the movements which animals make in response to stimulation are not the equivalent in energy of the stimulus applied, but involve the setting free of energy stored in the animal as well. True, when a microscopic animal meets an obstacle in its swimming, and darts backward, the movement is not a mere rebound; it implies energy contributed by the animal's own body. But just so an explosion of gunpowder is not the equivalent in energy of the heat of the match, the stimulus. Similarly it is...--Annotation Published: April 2014.