I suspect many of you, being dog lovers see what I see in my dogs....as was discussed on another message board, a sense of humor. I see other emotions too and have tried not to attribute excessively or completely my own projection of those signs of emotions. However, I could never discount them as symbolic or as some obscure representation of emotions. They look too much like we do when they display the many types of emotions, body language, facial expressions.
I would argue with myself sometimes, trying to reduce their similarities to us as illogical, in that they couldn't be as complex as we are because their intelligence isn't as sophisticated as ours, nor are their experiences really the same. I knew they experienced emotions, but to what degree and how in line with ours were they? But their body language, facial expressions and context of these demonstrations coincided so perfectly with what was happening, (play-joy, scolding-dejection, grieving-sadness, mistake-embarrassment, anger, fear etc...) that I was hard pressed to really be able to deny them...any of them.
I now believe that dogs experience each and every one of the emotions that we do, to some degree of intensity or another. Perhaps with more intensity because they lack the editing that we inject into our emotions by way of our more complex life experiences AND social structure. What lies behind them, as far as complexity or causation probably varies, as it does between individuals anyhow. But, I don't believe that their emotions are as far removed from ours as once was thought. What's more, is that this goes across the board of all mammals. All mammals share common body language and facial expressions in conjunction with the many emotions, as was noted by Darwin.
What do you think about this, and why?
I would argue with myself sometimes, trying to reduce their similarities to us as illogical, in that they couldn't be as complex as we are because their intelligence isn't as sophisticated as ours, nor are their experiences really the same. I knew they experienced emotions, but to what degree and how in line with ours were they? But their body language, facial expressions and context of these demonstrations coincided so perfectly with what was happening, (play-joy, scolding-dejection, grieving-sadness, mistake-embarrassment, anger, fear etc...) that I was hard pressed to really be able to deny them...any of them.
I now believe that dogs experience each and every one of the emotions that we do, to some degree of intensity or another. Perhaps with more intensity because they lack the editing that we inject into our emotions by way of our more complex life experiences AND social structure. What lies behind them, as far as complexity or causation probably varies, as it does between individuals anyhow. But, I don't believe that their emotions are as far removed from ours as once was thought. What's more, is that this goes across the board of all mammals. All mammals share common body language and facial expressions in conjunction with the many emotions, as was noted by Darwin.
What do you think about this, and why?