Summary Of Klaus Wilhelm's Article Do Animals Have Feelings

Kholoud Saada
Dr. James Rose
Psychology 101
7th May 2015
Animals Nature of Feelings and Emotions Klaus Wilhelm’s article “Do Animals Have Feelings,” discusses arguments about whether animals have feelings or not. According to Wilhelm, Darwinism said that all living things have a common aim which is to reproduce well and as much as possible. Darwinism gives examples by saying that insects, worms or jellyfish follows a specific arrangement to achieve their aim. However, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals etc. have a less routinized pattern which causes them to use their emotions. When an animal uses his emotions; this just means that a complex system of neurons energies all of a sudden causing an expectable behavior; the animal usually will try
Experts agree that animals feel through the process. The neuroscientist Antonio R.Damasio of the University of Iowa disagrees by saying that emotions generally are “physical signals of the body responding to stimuli” and Wilhelm says that feelings are a “stem from self-reflections.” The author also says that, “an organism registers the feeling of fear only after its brain becomes aware of the physical changes.” Overall, different scientists have different point of views regarding whether animals have feelings or no. Damasio almost believes that animals do have feelings; as he gives an example of pygmy chimpanzees when they express pity for other animals, the pygmy chimpanzees it without knowing that they are actually showing pity. However, Damasio can never know what is actually hidden in an animal’s mind. Jaak Panksepp says that the only organisms who are able to think about what they feel are humans. However, he does not believe that feelings only arise from reflection. He thinks that emotions are present in the brain
Mark Bekoff thinks that we do not have an Evidence that emotions do not exist in animals, as psychologists and researchers cannot demonstrate what exactly any other person feels; he also know researches that several animals have self-awareness of what they feel. Bekoff wrote an article that describes why he believes that animals have emotions. He illustrates feeling happy or sad in animals differentiates from feeling happy or sad in humans. However, emotions actually exists in animals as emotions is what allows animals to survive. Roger Abrantes agrees with Marc Bekoff’s opinion as Abrantes says that researches proved that several mammals are able to express responsiveness that he explains as “being able to set ourselves in the place of the other.” And the reason is that humans are prepared to predict someone’s feeling due to our similarity; however, humans cannot predict animal’s feelings as they are different creatures. He includes that we are “the sons and daughters of the same DNA.” Molika Ashford illustrates that spindle cells could show humans similar behaviors. However, this doesn’t mean that animals do have feelings. And she gives examples by saying that dogs does not have an spindle cells however they show a similarity to human’s social