How Should We Study Animal Consciousness Scientifically?
Jonathan C. P. Birch, D. Broom, Heather Browning, A. Crump, S. Ginsburg, Marta Halina, DavidW. Harrison, E. Jablonka, Andrew Lee, F. Kammerer, C. Klein, V. Lamme, M. Michel, F. Wemelsfelder, Oryan Zacks
Journal of Consciousness Studies March 31, 2022 DOI: 10.53765/20512201.29.3.008 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA conscious being has a subjective point of view on the world and its own body, a concept easiest to grasp with vision, as Ernst Mach illustrated by drawing his own visual perspective. However, subjective experience encompasses far more than vision, including sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile sensations—a complete sensory world. The text argues that these sensory experiences constitute a full subjective point of view, extending beyond any single sense to shape a person's entire conscious experience of reality.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Philosophy |
| Key finding | Human subjective experience includes a complete sensory world of sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile sensations, not just vision. |
Abstract
A conscious being has a subjective point of view on the world and on its own body. This idea of a ‘point of view’ is easiest to grasp in the case of vision. Ernst Mach, in the Analysis of Sensations, famously attempted to draw his own visual point of view (Figure 1). But there is far more to human subjective experience than vision. Our subjective point of view includes sounds, odours, tastes, tactile experiences — a complete sensory world. And these sensory experiences of a world