[FRIAM] haldane — ethology

[Frank Wimberly]

Good question, Dave.  I have a lot of experience with rabbits and with
dogs.  I find the sense of a relationship with dogs immensely greater.  Of
course, I was shooting at the rabbits at ages 10-16.  Maybe they didn't
want a relationship with me.  But I've also had more congenial interactions
with rabbits.  My impression is that their highest priorities are eating
and eliminating.  Dogs love to play, be scratched and petted. They get
anxious when their people leave and ecstatic when they return.  I could go
on.  I feel confident that dogs have a richer inner life than rabbits.
Nick, for example, will say that you can not experience the inner life of
"an other" because the only thing observable is its/her/his behavior even
to itself.  Unless he's changed his mind he doesn't think inner lives
exist.  A position that I think he has embraced is the idea that a person
infers his own feelings by observing his own behaviors.  I asked him
recently what *is* that observer and he hasn't answered yet.  Nick, I
apologize for picking on you but you are the only one I know who has taken
that position.  Besides Laird.  Please correct me if I have misrepresented
your views.

Frank

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:27 PM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> just came across this quote:
>
> “it is difficult to be sure how a rabbit feels at any time. Indeed many
> rabbits make no serious attempt to cooperate with scientists” (Haldane
> 1932).
>
> How do ethologists get past this issue?
>
> Is the bias against an interior "consciousness" simply pique because with
> rabbits, "what we have here is a failure to communicate." [Cool Hand Luke]
>
> davew
>
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