Do animals think ?

This is a question that has been asked so many times, many experiments done, and still there is not a straight answer. This is what i think about it.

This article http://www.slate.com/id/2127419/ has allot of good info about the topic. It perfectly shows that dog owners see human emotion/thoughts in the eye's of their dog and makes them think that the dog thinks too. The reason why is we humans think complicated and the dog does not, in that way the dog dog does not think it merly does what it knows. Still these animals have memory, an other reason why peeps think the dog thinks, But to remember you do not need to think. If the dog sees an old friend he will bark or move it's tail, it does something that makes clear he knows him, and so he remembers him but the dog does not wonder where he was al these years, like we would, it is happy because he simply sees him which brings back memory about happy times or not then you see it's tail between the legs as his face brings bak bad memory. A picture, eye sight, brings back memory, a touch, a smell or the ears that hear a word all bring back memory's without thinking, the non consciousness mind does that automatic.

Animals have feelings, it comes with the flesh we are al made off. We make a schedule and an animal not. We say "dinner time" tho an animal would eat when it is hungry. The hungry feeling pushes him to eat while we look at the clock and might think "15 minutes more PIZZA". Again our complex thinking creates the illusion that an animal does that too. You can make a dog fear you by hitting them with a club, yes that is not funny, that dog would fore ever evade you because the sight of you and the club brings back pain then walk to the dog with no club you will see a different reaction as the picture lacks the club, pain factor, and so you can make a dog love you and scared of you. Do this with a human and it does not matter wither he has a club or no club you know it was him that hit you. Feelings make an animal move while we humans are moved with feeling and thoughts. We can ignore fear and endure pain but an animal can not ignore it. This is the difference between the non/sub consciousness mind and the consciousnessmind in other word's knowing and thinking.

I believe that animals have a concept of time but i can not say it is like our consciousness concept. 1 experiment you can do is: When you go to sleep look at the clock and say to you're self "i need to wake up 5 minutes before the alarm goes off" you can also just say the time 5 minutes upfront, like alarm at 7 wake up at 6:55. It works for me like a charm and made me think that my non consciousness wakes me up and therefore must have a notion of time. My thought, shared by some others, is that the heartbeat is used to creat the notion of time and i think animals share that same notion of time.

Animals are conscious, aware, and do think...IMHO. What they DON'T seem to do is rationalize. They seem to lack the capacity for that mode of thinking and for introspection.

Humans are aware (even the stupid ones), but we also have the ability to be "aware that we are aware"...and "aware that we are aware that we are aware", and so on. I can have a thought, and then I can analyse that thought. I can also observe myself conceptually from a third-person perspective...I don't get the sense that animals can do that. As far as I know, there are no philosophers that also happen to be dogs.

But they do think, and feel, and see other beings as separate from themselves.

That's why I don't eat them...but that's another issue entirely.

Dog wants to go across the road. Person tells dog to "get back here". Dog looks at person, then back at road. Person starts yelling at dog. Dog keeps looking from road to person over and over.

Dog is making a decision. Dog is wondering "Is it worth it to disobey angry person and cross the road?". Dog is weighing the consequences of his decision.

This is called thinking. It may not be especially sophisticated, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out animals can think.

That's why I don't eat them either

Of course they think and feel.

What may be lacking is our ability to interpret and understand 'how' they think and feel.

Anyone who has ever observed crows or any of the other corvid species -- much less mammals -- can have but little doubt that they are able to calculate and anticipate the actions of humans based upon past experience. Corvids can recognise individual people and create tools. They form complex and fluid societies based upon kinship and attraction.

Many species of birds learn to recognise individuals, and come to learn about us -- perhaps as much or more than we learn about them.

Anybody who's ever had a dog knows that animals are a little bit more than a preprogrammed set of biological reactions to stimuli.

This is a tough one...

When I look my dog in the eyes she stares right back at me and doesn't shy away. I don't know many dogs that do that, but then again...she is by no means normal.

I'm not sure if she is actually thinking, but I do know that she is very curious. All I have to do is say "go get it" and she'll frantically start looking around for anything that she believes that I want her to get. When she can't find it, she comes to me and stares me down until I show her what I want her to get.

This could be a action done from memory, but the fact that she goes around looking for something before she even knows what it is leads me to believe that she's thinking. There must be something going on in there that resembles a thought process. Otherwise, she would simply wait until I show her the object. Instead she goes looking.

But, I'm still not sure.

I think that animal owners naturally want to believe that their pets are thinking, so I guess we are biased.

The one question that I would challenge people to ask themselves is: "Is there a clear divider between consciousness and non-consciousness?" What I mean is, when humans gained consciousness (in whatever way you think they gained it), did it come along all at once? Or was it gradual? Is it possible that there are many different levels of consciousness that may not be recognizable to us as consciousness? I just think that we have a very limited view on this sort of thing with our physical body. We have no way of experiencing animal consciousness (if it does exist) since we are already burdened with our own.