Animal Minds
Subtitle: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: May 1, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9780226308654
Subjects: Animal behaviour; Animal Behavior (Ethology); Science; Nature/Ecology; Cognitive Psychology; Life Sciences - Zoology - General; Science / Zoology; Animal Psychology; Animal behavior; Cognition in animals
First sentence: A hungry chimpanzee walking through his native rain forest comes upon a large Panda oleosa nut lying on the ground under one of the widely scattered Panda trees.
Description: Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.