The Knowledge of Animals  I am increasingly startled by the
confidence with which thinkers describe the thought process of
animals. It appears that all one needs to know is what
distinguishes humans from animals, then subtract that aspect in
order to arrive at a model of the animal mind. Once we know what
the animal mind is like, we can show how different it is from
the human mind. Then concrete examples can be used: for
instance, animals seldom get caught in tautologies — that is
man’s unique privilege.  It does seem likely to me that there
are qualitative degrees of intelligence, consciousness, or
whatever you want to call it. I just do not see the reason for
assuming that human beings stand absolutely alone on this side
of whatever qualitative leap came last. Are we really willing to
say that a dog’s mental life is closer to that of an ant than
that of a human being? Is it possible that “lower” forms of life
have in fact suffered from the short-circuit of self-
consciousness without having the brain capacit