(February 9, 2012 at 10:35 am)Rhythm Wrote: Yes Tack, animals make conscious decisions. That's how ambush predators hold off spooking an animal, or let animals pass by until one gets close enough. They weigh the situation, and make a decision to ambush or not. I only use that as an extreme example of how calculating animals can be, and how much their lives hinge on the choices they make. Other examples that might be helpful would be animals and communication, where choices are made as to what they communicate, how they socialize and with whom....you're not seriously on the fence about whether or not there's a moment in the day when an animal is sitting there wondering what it wants to do next are you? Do you have pets? Animals are not automatons (unless we're willing to call all animals...including ourselves...automatons). Take a look down the branches of your own taxonomy Tack, you are Animalia....
Sigh, sigh, sigh....I would be incredibly surprised if you could come up with parameters for freewill that excluded every animal except human animals without explicitly saying "only human beings have free will because we say so".
Interesting observation. I had never thought of it in this way.
Here;s my two cents. Animals are certainly not automatons, but they are not on the same level as humans either. While animals are able to make decisions, the template for those decisions are hardwired. Th ekey difference between humans and animals is the process of conceptualization. Specifically, the process of abstraction.
Humans are capable of taking in percepts, that is, raw input of the senses, identify and categorize its properties and then retain it as an abstract principle separately from the its representative concrete.
Its because of this advanced capacity of conceptualization, humans can have what can conceivably called free-will. I prefer to call it "volition".
Since humans are capable of creating abstract concepts separate from but representing concretes, they can create an abstract notion of "I" - of themselves - separate from, but representing their mind and body. This idea of self is crucial for volition because it is the necessary requirement for self-awareness, awareness of once actions, motivations and the capacity for introspection. Essentially, I would say that it is our prior actions and motivations that form the template for the choices we make, just as it does for other animals. The difference is that once we become aware of them, we can conceivably alter them. Acting according to the template is no longer essential to our nature. That is what I consider to be free-will.
A caveat here. I do not believe that every member of human species is capable of it. Nor do I believe that no other animal apart from humans is capable of this level of conceptualization. In fact, I consider many mammals such as other great apes, elephants, dolphins etc to be quite capable of it. Whether they actually are or not, and what other species out there is capable of it as well, is a question for science to answer. I simply use this as a general rule of thumb to separate humans from animals.
