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Sentience... How do you determine it in animals?

C

ckkoba

Member
Well, I was reading through an art magazine, and there was an interesting article about Elephant Art. Basically it said that the elephant drawings reflected the elephants sentience? Now, when I read this i was like whoa... Elephants drawing. Looks like a bunch of lines. And the writer goes on comparing the drawings to Pollock! So yah I came out of the bathroom with a few questions...

What I'd like to know is:
1. How do we determine if an animal is sentient or not?
2. IQ, how do we measure IQ (or equivalent) in animals? Does it have to do with looking at the size of the brain (and the different regions of brain?).

I'm sure some bio major here can explain this to me 🙂 It's been bugging me of late and I need to know... 😱
 
I think most animals are (I mean really, I swear this one dog smiles when you pet him just right), but don't think that the "art" has anything to do with it.

The only reason they "draw" is because they have associated it with a reward. Grab stick and move head=food.
 


<< 1. How do we determine if an animal is sentient or not? >>



That's easy. If the animal tastes good it's NOT sentient.
 


<< how do we identify it in human animals?? (we are, after all, our own measuring stick) >>



I dunno, how do we identify it in human animals??
 


<<

<< how do we identify it in human animals?? (we are, after all, our own measuring stick) >>



I dunno, how do we identify it in human animals?? >>



That's my point -- we have no clear and objective definition of intelligence (even in cognitive science) other than it is "humanlike". Think about the Turing test.

In the past, we could not even decide if certain individuals (or races) were "human", so you really have to take the whole thing with a big lump of salt.

 
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