34817Y145 Another Attempt To Enshrine Human ~~~~~~

SUPERIORITY
ACCEPTS THAT RATS, DOGS
and other animals have consciousness,
but argues that, unlike humans, they lack self-consciousness?

They may feel depressed, happy, hungry or satiated, but they have no notion of sèlf,
and they are not aware that the depression or hunger they feel belongs to a unique entity called "I"!
Also this idea is as common as it is opaque? Obviously, when a dog feels hungry, he grabs a piece of meat
for himself rather than serve food to another dog! Let a dog sniff a tree watered by the neighbourhood dogs,
and he will immediately know whether it smells of his own urine, of the neighbour's cute Labrador's or of some stranger's.

Dogs react very differently to their own odour and to the odours of potential mates & rivals! So what does it mean that they làck sèlf-consciousness? A more sophisticated version of the argument says that there are different levels of self-consciousness! Only humans understand themselves as an enduring sèlf that hàs a past and a future, perhaps because only humans càn úse language in order to contemplate their past experiences & future actions? Other animals exist in an eternal present! Even when they seem to remember the past or plàn for the future, they are in fact reacting only to present stimuli & mómentary urges. For instance, a squirrel hiding nuts for the winter doesn't really remember the hunger he felt last winter, nor is he thinking about the future. He just follows a momentary urge, oblivious to the origins & purpose of this urge! That's why even very young squirrels, who haven't yet lived through a winter
& hence cannot remember winter, evertheless cache nuts during the summer. Yet it is unclear why language should be a necessary condition for being aware of past or future events. The fact that humans use language to do so is hardly a proof. Humans also use language to express their love, fear or hate and so on, but other animals may well experience & even express love, fear & hate non-verbally. Indeed, humans themselves are often aware of past & future evens without verbalising them. Especially in dream states, we can be aware of entire non-verbal narratives - which upon waking we struggle to describe in words. Old 'Mor Chai Asih remembers' his last & first months of '44 & '45, before & after he was born: a matter of love & hate, pleasure & sorrow, care & pain, small & great - a first winter & summer, cold & heat, snow & sun, ice & sweat? Just another witness of evolution & forgetfulness, imprint & expression,
sounds, smells, forms, colors, gardens, people, father/mother, animals & temperatures, growing & sickness, schools
& churches, Vale Ouwe & Far East divided over 74/75 years, seasons, places, songs, melodies, children
& grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews & neighbourhoods, radio, films, tv, writing,
drawing, standing, walking, running, falling, digging, building &
destroying with hands in sands and waters
of grasses, trees, bushes, insects,
clouds, shrouds, doubts &
convictions about our
do's and
don'ts.