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Do animals have feelings? (pg. 3)
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by Rigon
But we never have the same meanings of our reactions, which follows into different views on morals and ethics...in the big picture this is excactly the thing that makes our life a living hell because of the wars we create because of this...and versus. the simple animal life...isn't it incredibly strange that we've managed to evolve on this planet at all? |
So goes the way of the evolution of memes, or cultural evolution. Dominant memes will survive, the weak will die off. The meanings we assign to emotion are not static. That does not mean they aren't based on some natural animal instinct within us. |
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| ChemEnhanced |
| I don't know if animals have feelings....I know I feel full after some good animal eats. |
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| Chimney |
| quote: | Originally posted by Slylee
use your imagination alt |
I'm no alt. |
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| david.michael |
Our dog was always a bit of a dick, in that he pretty much did what he wanted whether you had anything to say about it or not. Ended up having two blown discs in his back and needed severe back surgery. It was to the point where they were protruding into his spine and cutting off the signals to his legs. He ended up temporarily paralyzed from the "waist" down and started dragging his hind legs around. Wouldn't eat, wouldn't move, would yelp constantly, and acted completely lethargic and "depressed".
We took him to the hospital and got him all fixed up (almost 5 grand later...), but he was obviously severely crippled for several weeks (needed aid from us and a sling in order to walk, needed to keep his activity level down, etc.
Ever since we took so much gentle care of him and got him all fixed up, he's notably more affectionate and co-operative. Perhaps it was that his personality changed a bit due to messing around with his spine/spinal cord, or that there was always a problem which made him grumpy... but we like to think that he "knows" that we did so much for him and that he's appreciative. :) |
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| PETRAN |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Emotions are the enemy of intellect. Animal emotions are probably more genuine than ours, because they don't spend so much time thinking about them. |
Thats actually a common misconception. Emotions are actually guided by thoughts. It is no strange that humans have the richest emotional palette. Simple feelings and emotions are two different things. |
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| lacksesepsotygh |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
What breed is that? |
it's a dog |
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| lücid |
| i'm pretty sure my cat is trying to seek revenge on me for leaving him home alone for 10 days. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by PETRAN
Thats actually a common misconception. Emotions are actually guided by thoughts. It is no strange that humans have the richest emotional palette. Simple feelings and emotions are two different things. |
As self-aware beings we have the capacity to think about thinking though. Our emotions are doubtless more intricate than animals, but my point is that if an animal feels love it is probably going to feel it more cleanly because it isn't constantly thinking about that feeling.
I'm not denying that animal "love" towards an owner is very simple and pretty unconditional, but if you think about it, that's just consistency of feeling. With someone you love, you'll always feel conflicting emotions from time to time- anger, frustration, jealousy and so on, but it's very rare I feel my dog is sulking with me.
Besides, human thought is shaped by language where animal thought is not. "Love" is a word and you have to think about what the word means, which is open to all the potential forces of semiotics and deconstruction. Animals don't have language in the sense of a semiotic system, so there is less abstraction and more directness in their thoughts and consequently feelings. |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by lücid
i'm pretty sure my cat is trying to seek revenge on me for leaving him home alone for 10 days. |
:wtf: 10 days??? Man I thought leaving my cats behind for 4 days was pushing the envelope. |
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| lücid |
| quote: | Originally posted by The17sss
:wtf: 10 days??? Man I thought leaving my cats behind for 4 days was pushing the envelope. |
the girl who lives downstairs came to make sure he had enough food/water and to check on him, so he at least wasn't completely alone the entire time. i still feel bad, but i didn't really have any other options aside from taking him to a kennel which scares me more than just leaving him home alone.
he's definitely pissed at me. :( |
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| josh rising |
my cat eats her feelings. all the time.
:D |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by lücid
the girl who lives downstairs came to make sure he had enough food/water and to check on him, so he at least wasn't completely alone the entire time. i still feel bad, but i didn't really have any other options aside from taking him to a kennel which scares me more than just leaving him home alone.
he's definitely pissed at me. :( |
ohh ok. yeah they get like that. If mine are alone for a couple of days, they act all crazy when we come back. The male especially "talks" to us for like 6 hours with an expanded range of weird sounds. It's like he's lecturing us or blasting us for leaving him....lol. I feel bad about it too. I don't like the idea of leaving them in a kennel either. |
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