Are animals conscious? Why we’re starting to think so
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After centuries of dismissing the rest of the animal kingdom as non-sentient beings, scientists and philosophers are starting to make a new declaration in favour of animal consciousness. So what does that even mean, and what does it change?
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Host: Luke Jones.
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Transcript
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| 1:31.0 | From the Times and the Sunday Times this is the story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 1:35.0 | Are animals capable of pleasure, pain, happiness, maybe misery? |
| 1:48.0 | Charles Darwin thought there was no fundamental difference between man and animals in this regard. His theory of |
| 1:54.7 | evolution forever changed how we see ourselves and the natural world, but the |
| 1:59.3 | suggestion that a rabbit could feel joy or a giraffe new suffering was dismissed for years as scientific |
| 2:06.5 | heresy. For centuries the suggestion that animals had consciousness was rejected. But not now. |
| 2:15.0 | There's plenty of examples of animals that have been quite well studied where you see that they get |
| 2:27.4 | recreationally drunk. |
| 2:30.1 | Why take a mind-altering drug if you don't have a mind to alter? |
... |
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