From Mary Midgley
The idea that animals are not conscious—which Donald Griffin so stoutly
resists—does not flow from science, though many scientists
apparently accept it. It is simply part of the 16th-century thinker René
Descartes’ notion that human consciousness is unique, flowing from a
supernatural soul that is alien to the body.
Scientists originally welcomed this notion because it left the material world
soul-free for them to study. For biology, however, it is a disaster, totally
obscuring our relation to the life around us. We do not now need this
separatism. Post-Darwin, and especially given modern ethological studies, it is
surely scientifically indefensible.
Newcastle upon Tyne
