How do we really know that animals express and feel emotions?
In: Biology
How do we know? Common sense.
I know that my dog and I experience sadness the same way because we both express it the same way, we can detect it in each other, and we both take corrective action to cheer each other up and care for each other when the other is sad.
In other words, if a dog acts consistently with my behavior of sadness, then sadness is an accurate description of the dogs behavior. From there we infer the internal experience of sadness.
This question relates to existential doubt: you can’t quantify another being’s internal experience. That doesn’t throw out all of psychology on a technicality. I could just as easily say that science can never prove anything, only disprove things. So that means you can never truly know gravity exists. yet, it’s clearly a real phenomenon consistent with my experience.
Latest Answers