Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness First Edition Thus

by Donald R. Griffin (Author)

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Amazon.com Review

Do animals think? According to Cartesian models of science that have long influenced the Western view of the natural world, they do not: they merely react to external stimuli, the responses to which they cannot control.

A different view has emerged in recent years, one that draws on findings from experimental psychology, biology, linguistics, and cognitive ethology. Writes Donald Griffin, an associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, "Communicative behavior is not a human monopoly." Animal communication--from the dance language of the bees to the vocalisms of parrots and bonobos--suggests that there is more than a ghost in the machine. For underlying that communicative ability are other powers that humans have no easy way of gauging: a sense of time and futurity, a complex memory, an ability to lie, even consciousness itself.

Griffin examines recent studies that show that many species are able to discern and classify colors, shapes, materials, and "sameness," and that many other species are able to adapt their communications systems to account for novel situations. Warning that our understanding of animal minds is still ill-formed and that much work remains to be done in the field before we can confidently answer that ancient question one way or the other, he argues that "animals are best viewed as actors who choose what to do, rather than as objects totally dependent on outside influences." --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

The creator of the controversial field of cognitive ethology, Donald R. Griffin (The Question of Animal Awareness) has spent more than three decades researching animal cognition. In a completely revised and updated edition of his classic, Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness, Griffin, now an associate of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, discusses his own and others' research findings including those of his critics. Although he admits "it is very difficult to gather convincing evidence about whether conscious experiences may occur in animals," he maintains that scientists like him have "show[n] that many animals behave in ways that strongly indicate that they are aware of their situation and how their behavior can affect it." Intended for others in the field, Griffin's book will enlighten, delight and even ruffle some feathers.

From the Inside Flap

In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century.

With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

From the Back Cover

In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century.

With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

About the Author

Donald R. Griffin has been a professor at Cornell, Harvard, and Rockefeller Universities and is now an associate of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. His many books include The Question of Animal Awareness, Animal Thinking, Listening in the Dark, Echoes of Bats and Men, Animal Structure and Function, and Bird Migration.

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Product information

Technical Details

Publisher

‎University of Chicago Press; First Edition Thus (May 1, 2001)

Language

‎English

Hardcover

‎376 pages

ISBN-10

‎0226308650

ISBN-13

‎978-0226308654

Item Weight

‎1.56 pounds

Dimensions

‎9.36 x 6.36 x 1.2 inches

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ex-librarian

animals smarter than most think

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014

Verified Purchase

Griffin is no longer with us, but his quality work will be important for years to come--assuming the animals remain as well. There are many changes in the world affecting animals and birds and we need to help them survive and by understanding how fascinating and intelligent they are, we will work for their safety.

3 people found this helpful

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Eduardo Bessa

Could be better

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

It is an amazing theme, but I think the most exciting cases were not as well exploited as I expected.

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Ila France Porcher, Author of The Shark Sessions

The Pioneer of Cognitive Ethology

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2010

Donald Griffen was the first scientist to challenge the reductionist notion that animals are incapable of cognition (the word for thinking in non-human animals), in 1985, and thus he founded the science of cognitive ethology.

This book, and the earlier version released in 1994, provide a range of reports of eye-witness accounts of behaviour by animals that could not have been performed without mental referencing (or thought), along with his brilliant analyses and discussion of the meaning of each.

Though well received by the public, the works of Professor Griffin were widely criticized by the scientific community because his assertions were difficult to prove, and because his views represented a reversal of the currently held belief that animals were unconscious automatons. However, more and more evidence is appearing in the scientific literature in support of his pioneering work, and proving him to be right.

This book is unequalled in presenting a scientific argument that animals, invertebrates as well as the so-called "higher" animals, are capable, each in a unique way, of cognition. The latest version of the work includes arguments in response to criticisms of the original.

18 people found this helpful

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James J. O'Heare

Not the best -- not the greatest

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2002

Griffin spends a lot of time arguing his stance and not enough discussing the definitions and concepts that his stance is based on. He does explain the research in nice detail but I kept thinking that learning theory explains the same behaviors he is describing without reference to conscious awareness and so the arguments don't fully make it for me. Minds of Their Own by Rogers is better but I still found this book (Animal Minds) better than Species of Mind which was way to hard to read -- I came away with no knew knowledge from reading Species of Mind. To sum I'd say it's worth reading for sure but only if you intend to also read Mind's of Their Own. They compliment each other nicely because Griffin describes more detail in the research while Rogers discusses the arguements and definitions better.
James O'Heare, Dip.C.B.

23 people found this helpful

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Worldreels

A DOG CHASING ITS OWN TAIL

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2002

Griffin's hair turned white pursuing answers in this field. He lists 800 books in his 45 page Bibliography! It is a real test of the reader's vocabulary: perceptual consciousness, reflective consciousness, epiphenomenon, cognitive ethology and on and on and on.
A class in semantics may have clarified the author's thoughts. Everything he talks about, e.g., whether animals and computers can think, is based on his or others verbal definitions without much evidence to verify these beliefs. It is obvious that every creature has its own view of the world. And equally obvious that there is no way to compare the worldview of a bee or ant to a human worldview because of greatly differing boundary conditions. I doubt that a long recitation of ones ignorance will prove useful in the grand scheme of life. And one simply can't define oneself up to a higher state of knowledge. This writing reminds me of a dog chasing its own tail.

12 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Do NOT Read This Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2001

Do not read this book. I attempted to read this book for a college class. This book should be cut down to the size of a magazine article and be published in a scientific journal. The public should not be misled into thinking that this book is readable. It is written at too high of a diction, and Griffin rambles on for 20 pages on one topic, which I won't spoil for those of you unfortunate to read this trash. The subject information is interesting, but this is written poorly, and will bore the reader to tears. Just thought I'd let you all know.

12 people found this helpful

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Louis Berger

building on quicksand

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2011

There are two huge problems with this book. First, it is based on a large constellation of unexamined presuppositions -- ones that even though they are widely held, nevertheless are suspect. The most fundamental unexamined, tacit assumptions are those concerning language, seeing and treating it as a separate referential semiotic system or tool. A close second set is composed of assumptions about possible explanations -- basically, that explanations must be in terms of articulable/cognitive text or model. The third set of questionable presuppositions concerns what I have called "the pure knowledge paradigm", the search for truth, certainty, for its own sake that thinkers such as Richard Rorty have come to view with suspicion if not disdain. So, the book's effort has no rationale other than the pursuit of academic, abstract truth. Here, the neglected question is, why are we investigating this issue? Our goals ought to dictate what approaches are appropriate.

All in all, the enterprise is a misleading waste of time, masquerading as a scientifically respectable, laudable project.

One person found this helpful

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Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness First Edition Thus

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