You're making such an innate distinction between humans and other animals, saying we have absolutely no idea what they're minds would be like. Is smacking of antropocentrism, a bit like the paradox called "Buridan's ass". I also made a distinction between humans and other animals in my previous post, but not based on innate cognition.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑June 21st, 2021, 7:27 pmHuh? I'm saying that we don't know what other animals' minds would be like. How is that anthropocentric?
"can animals commit suicide?"
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Re: "can animals commit suicide?"
- Terrapin Station
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Re: "can animals commit suicide?"
I'm someone who thinks you can't really know the contents of another human's mind, too. But at least that's slightly more plausible because there are more similarities between your brain and another human's than there are between your brain and a cat's, say.Fja1 wrote: ↑June 21st, 2021, 8:25 pmYou're making such an innate distinction between humans and other animals, saying we have absolutely no idea what they're minds would be like. Is smacking of antropocentrism, a bit like the paradox called "Buridan's ass". I also made a distinction between humans and other animals in my previous post, but not based on innate cognition.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑June 21st, 2021, 7:27 pmHuh? I'm saying that we don't know what other animals' minds would be like. How is that anthropocentric?
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Re: "can animals commit suicide?"
That doesn't sound like what I would class as suicide. It doesn't sound like an act with the specific, conscious aim of ending life. But maybe it's where the expression "as sick as a parrot" comes from. If they ate a load of paracetamol, I'd call that suicide.arjand wrote:Parrots commit suicide by choice when their life's partner dies. They stop eating.
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Re: "can animals commit suicide?"
Perhaps it can be considered an expression of the depth of the love relationship between two birds that lasts for +100 years.
Parrots can also bond with a human as a 'life partner'. Cognitive intelligence of a parrot can be compared to that of a small child on some levels.
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023