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You should get yourself a pet. My cats communicate with me every day. "The danger here is to project our abilities into a small set of faculties animals have a

You should get yourself a pet. My cats communicate with me every day. "The danger here is to project our abilities into a small set of faculties animals have and say, look!, we're no better, we're no different." I think the greater danger is to project our definition of what it means to "think" onto animals, and say, look! they're stupid, thoughtless creatures we can do with as we like.

kitsunesoba 11y ago
Yes, any pet owner will corroborate that their pets make efforts to communicate with their owners quite regularly. What amazes me about cats is that they alter their method of communication to better fit humans. Cats don’t meow amongst each other or even with other types of animals; it’s something they do exclusively for our benefit. Not only do they realize that instinctual feline communication isn’t effective with humans, but also that humans are very dominantly vocal creatures and thus, if they are to successfully communicate they must be vocal. Perhaps I am too strongly projecting my human experience on these creatures, but this behavior reminds me of how a human might react if dropped into a society with entirely different modes of communication from his own, and as such suggests some level of cognition.
- RobertoG 11y ago
  It seems they evolved their way of communicating to manipulate us: 'Cats may be exploiting “innate tendencies in humans to respond to cry-like sounds in the context of nurturing offspring" ' ( https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17455-hungry-cats-trick-owners-with-baby-cry-mimicry/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17455-hungry-cats-tri... ) Anyway, whoever thinks that animals, specially mammals, don't think or have feelings need to interact with them more.
- ddingus 11y ago
  Yes. I also find the independent nature of cats striking. They very clearly understand we could kill them, and that we don't gives them license to be who they are unabashedly. A relationship with a cat is entirely optional as far as the cat is concerned. They coexist here with us, often treating us as peer beings in this world. It is remarkably like how I would imagine a human handling a similar scenario. There is more to cats cognition than we often give them credit for. I suspect this is true of many animals. I just have an affinity and what I consider deep understanding of cats. This runs deep enough for me to see the persona in them, not just personify behavior they demonstrate.
cristianpascu 11y ago
I have a cat and I grew with animals around my house. We should refrain from ethical judgements before having a clear understanding of what we're talking about. To understand requires a clear definition for every term we're using, either if we're very generous with animal mental faculties or we're not.

kitsunesoba 11y ago

Yes, any pet owner will corroborate that their pets make efforts to communicate with their owners quite regularly. What amazes me about cats is that they alter their method of communication to better fit humans. Cats don’t meow amongst each other or even with other types of animals; it’s something they do exclusively for our benefit. Not only do they realize that instinctual feline communication isn’t effective with humans, but also that humans are very dominantly vocal creatures and thus, if they are to successfully communicate they must be vocal. Perhaps I am too strongly projecting my human experience on these creatures, but this behavior reminds me of how a human might react if dropped into a society with entirely different modes of communication from his own, and as such suggests some level of cognition.

RobertoG 11y ago
It seems they evolved their way of communicating to manipulate us: 'Cats may be exploiting “innate tendencies in humans to respond to cry-like sounds in the context of nurturing offspring" ' ( https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17455-hungry-cats-trick-owners-with-baby-cry-mimicry/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17455-hungry-cats-tri... ) Anyway, whoever thinks that animals, specially mammals, don't think or have feelings need to interact with them more.
ddingus 11y ago
Yes. I also find the independent nature of cats striking. They very clearly understand we could kill them, and that we don't gives them license to be who they are unabashedly. A relationship with a cat is entirely optional as far as the cat is concerned. They coexist here with us, often treating us as peer beings in this world. It is remarkably like how I would imagine a human handling a similar scenario. There is more to cats cognition than we often give them credit for. I suspect this is true of many animals. I just have an affinity and what I consider deep understanding of cats. This runs deep enough for me to see the persona in them, not just personify behavior they demonstrate.

cristianpascu 11y ago

I have a cat and I grew with animals around my house. We should refrain from ethical judgements before having a clear understanding of what we're talking about. To understand requires a clear definition for every term we're using, either if we're very generous with animal mental faculties or we're not.