[The anatomy of consciousness in domestic animals. Opening address of the 20th Congress of the EVVA in Zürich in memory of Eugen Seiferle].
All living organisms have a consciousness, not only humans. To seek to find humans' consciousness in animals is to seek wrongly. The question must be: "To what extent are prehuman and human consciousness comparable.' Animals have an instinctive sensational consciousness with a partial learning consciousness. It is a purely self-sustaining consciousness. In addition, humans have a spiritual-thinking consciousness, which is predominantly a learning consciousness and is not a pure self-sustaining consciousness. Since human consciousness arose from animals' consciousness, that behaviour in animals which is similar to the thought process in human beings can only be based on sensations. Sensations of pain and fear are not very different in man and animal, because they also belong to the sensation consciousness in humans, but humans have the additional advantage of being able to think about them and to understand their cause and meaning. That is not possible in animals, therefore, animals have to be anaesthetized to protect them from pain. Seiferle recognized this clearly, and my consciousness theory reinforces Seiferle's view, i.e. that consciousness is the central force of the soul. Its afferent forces are perception and sensation; its efferent forces are will, feeling, and deed.
Preuss
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Institut für Veterinäranatomie der Freien Universität Berlin.
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000523:psychology*; D003243:Consciousness; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D010146:Pain / Q000662:veterinary
Zur Anatomie des Bewusstseins der Haustiere. Eröffnungsvortrag zum 20. Kongress der EVVA in Zürich zum Gedenken an Eugen Seiferle.