Mentophobia or mentaphobia is a term used by Donald Griffin, an American zoologist and founder of cognitive ethology, for resistance among scientists to the idea that non-human animals are conscious.[1][2] Griffin argued that a taboo "against scientific consideration of private, conscious, mental experiences" had led to the minimisation of the consciousness of non-human animals, as well as human consciousness, and that this was a barrier to scientific progress.[3]
Mentophobia has been compared with Frans de Waal's concept of anthropodenial,[1] which he defined as "a blindness to the humanlike characteristics of other animals, or the animal-like characteristics of ourselves".[4] It has also been compared with Daniel Dennett's observation that people may accept uncertainty about human consciousness while still granting moral consideration to humans, but do not always extend the same approach to other animals.[5]
In Contre la mentaphobie ("Against Mentaphobia"), David Chauvet argues that denying animal consciousness reduces the guilt associated with harms inflicted on animals.[6]
See also
References
- 1 2 Sueur, Cédric; Forin-Wiart, Marie-Amélie; Pelé, Marie (December 2020). "Are They Really Trying to Save Their Buddy? The Anthropomorphism of Animal Epimeletic Behaviours". Animals. 10 (12): 2323. doi:10.3390/ani10122323. PMC 7762333. PMID 33297457.
- ↑ Ricard, Matthieu (2016). A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion (First English ed.). Boulder: Shambhala. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8348-4054-6. OCLC 960042213.
- ↑ Griffin, Donald R. (1998-07-10). "From cognition to consciousness". Animal Cognition. 1 (1): 3–16. doi:10.1007/s100710050002. ISSN 1435-9448. S2CID 35714482.
- ↑ Waal, Frans de (1997-01-19). "Are We in Anthropodenial?". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
- ↑ Waldau, Paul (2013). Animal Studies: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-19-996839-8. OCLC 839301846.
- ↑ Chauvet, David (2014). Contre la mentaphobie [Against Mentaphobia]. Lausanne: L'Age d'homme. ISBN 978-2-8251-4367-4. OCLC 881573845.
Further reading
- Griffin, Donald (2013). Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-22712-2. OCLC 904249124.
