Do Animals Have A Sense Of Self?

[Max_V]

I was wondering this while looking at my hamster. Does the hamster have the experience of being a hamster or does he simply move his body habitually and is conscious that he is so much more than a hamster.

Hopefully this topic is not too conceptual. If it is, I will take it down. 

[Prabhaker]

@Max_V

Self recognition and the rise of what most refer to as personhood.

 

 

[Max_V]

So do animals identify with their bodies? or are they just 'the observer' 

[Nahm]

3 hours ago, Max_V said:

I was wondering this while looking at my hamster. Does the hamster have the experience of being a hamster or does he simply move his body habitually and is conscious that he is so much more than a hamster.

Hopefully this topic is not too conceptual. If it is, I will take it down. 

Lots of animals pair up for life and recognize each other even after spending long durations apart. Dolphins refer to each other by name and carry out a very similiar family structure to humans. They speak to each other in language. So not only are some animals aware of their self, some are even aware of other specific individuals.

[Loreena]

Animals are highly aware creatures. Not to forget that we're animals too. . Animals sense feelings and even possess intuition or psychic abilities, example your pets. The only thing is that we can't effectively communicate with them. We  can't communicate with them as well as we would like to but they do communicate very effectively within the same species. Intra species communication is very well developed through evolutionary mechanisms but there's a problem with interspecies communication. However this gets compensated by an effective signalling system that all species have developed to escape the predators. 

Are animals aware of their own presence ? Difficult to know. We can only speculate. There is no solid proof to show whether  they are aware/unaware of their presence and consciousness. And it differs from one species to another.

 

 

[eputkonen]

9 hours ago, Max_V said:

I was wondering this while looking at my hamster. Does the hamster have the experience of being a hamster or does he simply move his body habitually and is conscious that he is so much more than a hamster.

Hopefully this topic is not too conceptual. If it is, I will take it down. 

Sure there is a sense of self...just a lot less thinking about it.