The question of animal awareness: evolutionary continuity of mental experience

Abstract

The Question of Animal Awareness was first published in 1976. Reaction was immediate and vociferous, ranging from unqualified endorsement to equally unqualified depreciation. The result? Professor Griffin has answered his critics in this revised and enlarged edition, in which he further elaborates on his theme that, by breaking old taboos, it should be possible to establish two-way communication with animals under study and so develop a truly experimental science of cognitive ethology. He also engages in broad discussions of a number of challenging questions that either have been ignored or sidestepped by investigators in fields ranging from anthropology, ethology, and linguistics to psychology and zoology: Just how complex are animal communication systems? Are animals aware of what they are doing? Do they have mental images? Are human mental experiences the only kind that exist? Is language in truth a uniquely human characteristic?