On 2/7/2003 11:09:30 AM, Amy Scharpf wrote:
>I was re-reading the article
>about Buddha, and I had also
>read on the board about a
>question that Professor
>Borrowdale had responded to
>about Socrates view on animals
>not being able to feel pain,
>or "human like".

It wasn't Socrates but Descartes that viewed animals as not being able to feel pain. Descartes said that animals react to stimulus.

I agree, animals do feel pain. I recently had my male cat neutered. He walked slightly bowlegged and all he wanted to do was lay quietly by the fireplace. It may not be that he was feeling "pain" but he most certainly wasn't feeling spunky.

On the other hand, I understand Descartes point of view. If you trained a dog that a steak was not food but a toy to play with, then the dog would react accordingly. Dogs are trained to react to stimulus. They find drugs, people buried in avalanches, etc. But it takes a human with a brain to train them.