• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: Xorkoth | Madness

Do animals relate to death "the same way" as human beings?

Psyduck

Psyduck

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
672
Regardless of any theories of immortality, it's straightforward observation that human beings essentially relate to their own finitude or mortality. They can and must relate to death AS death.

Animals, like human beings, will also perish physically, but do they relate to their own finitude in the same way as humans? And if not, is it not a distinguishing feature of the human being that he can and must confront his own finitude?
 
I think animals are aware of the idea that things change. Things come, things go. But whether they are self aware enough to apply that same principle to themselves is another matter. Some with the higher levels of self awareness may, the apes, dolphins and possibly elephants.

Edit: Cats are another kettle of fish altogether.

I don't think it's necessarily the idea of our own morality which is the distinguishing factor, it's the ability for higher levels of reasoning/abstract thought.

We could say the idea of traveling to the stars is another distinguishing factor, but that would be just another result of our abilities to reason.
 
Last edited:
y9ou know
i spent liekean hour once
crying over this big Crickett i killed
but i think more important is how high i was when my cat went into the closet to die
and i could have been with him but i was high and thinking about a fucking cricket
 
I don't, personally, think they do. In theory, any animal which can understand death as we do must have the capacity to somewhat willingly commit suicide. Humans can comprehend their own non-existance and realise that death is the cessation of life so, in unfortunate circumstances, humans can commit suicide knowing full well what it entails. Animals, on the other hand, don't seem to be able to understand that . They are just driven by the desire to survive, not understanding what it means to die. I think this can be demonstrated in some pretty terrible animal abuse cases. Where-as humans may decide to kill themselves to escape suffering, animals just keep on going.
 
elephants mourn the loss of young ones, animals have emotions too, ones that aren't just about survival. If you're talking about a single cell organism or something then sure but animals are far more complex.

and what about those penguins who just decided to jump off a big iceberg to death? lol

animals aren't just little bio-electrical machines programmed to survive, well not any more/less than we are.

it depends on the animal in this case but how will we ever really know anyway? unless our primate friends evolve super fast and can communicate with us.

i think we look at it exactly the same as any animal would; every day we know we can die in the wild, it's all in the game? from that we/they can determine that they aren't immortal. I think most animals know this as a truth more so than most humans do.
 
I watched a documentary with a group of elephants, one baby got trampled during a stampede. His mother came back to find him dead and kept trying to nudge and wake him up. I guess she realized he was dead but didn't want to leave him behind. The rest of the herd paced back and forth and a couple other elephants came back and were using their trunks to touch her and the baby. It was as if they were urging her to move on with everyone else and eventually she did.

I'm not sure they grieve the same way but sure animals have the capacity to feel emotions like people do. Like when my dog was in failing health we took many trips to the vet during that final year. The last time he needed to be euthanized and I came home alone. My other dog kept coming by me sniffing and I just wanted to be left alone because I was really sad. Then she kept going in and out from the yard and going to the front door like she was looking for him. Then the dog would put her head on my lap so I would pet her. She was acting confused and I think that's natural.
 
^i've noticed similar things with cats i had when growing up. It's incredibly sad that you can't explain to the cat/dog what happened, though i'm sure they figure it out, on some level they grieve too.
 
I think so. A lot of animals that are dying or lose a leg or whatever will start to find somewhere to go off to die privately. Also, i mean most animals have the same drives as humans like trying not to get killed or stay alive. It could always be an instinctual or biological signal to eat or run...but id think they are avoiding death.

Also, when my familiy dog passed, her legs was fucked up so we layed her down on a blanket and just chilled around her cuz we had to take her to the clinic the next day, and the whole process she seemed like she kinda knew what was up and just wanted to chill with us. She was raised more as a person, around people, and socialized that way and whatnot, moreso than around dogs or at parks and whatnot if that makes a difference.
 
No they don't relate to it in the same way. Humans tend to have death rituals, like burial and cremation. I have witnessed animals grieve over separation and death, and read plenty of stories about animals reacting to their owners dying. There is also plenty of evidence that even wild animals experience grief, separation, and loss (like elephants).

It's ironic that humans point out that animals don't really understand death so they can't understand what just happened; meanwhile, humans don't know anymore than the animals do, if you think about it. We just act like we know more because we are a species that dwells a lot on the question of "why?".
 
By and large no, animals do not have the cognitive power to construct a linear narrative connecting past experiences to what they're perceiving now, and extrapolating that into what likely lies in store for their future. There are probably some exceptions, but for the vast majority of sentient, self-aware creatures on this earth, the torrent of sensory stimuli bombarding them right here right now, and their reflexive responses to them, instinctive or conditioned, are all that is. Most animals subjectively live outside of time as we know it.

It's interesting that being focused on the present moment is a commonly prescribed treatment for existential terror, especially by meditators and many practitioners of other forms of mysticism as well. I'd always conceived of this mental exercise as turning on a higher, not often used part of our minds. But I've changed my mind on this: I think it's actually turning off a higher, more rostral, evolutionarily newer part of our cognitive faculties and getting back in touch with a more primal way of thinking and being. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though it definitely is humbling.

This is essentially my interpretation of the phrase "We must be like children", often encountered in spiritual writings, which is often dismissed as a meaningless platitude by people unimpressed with spiritual literature on the whole.
 
Most animals, like dogs, live one hundred percent in the moment analogous to a person completely stripped of Id and being only ego. I'd say yes as well that humans are the only species that create a concept of their lifestories, and deaths, and the personal meanings for themselves.
 
I would suggest that actually we do relate in the same way, that no living organism wants to die.. instinctively there is an avoidance of death, for obvious reasons. We're the only species that sits around wondering about it but I wouldn't say that many people actually understand it any better than an animal does though. We have theories and personal assumptions about death but no one knows what death is (well.. a few do). Really what most people do in regards to death is twist and turn inside their own heads, but that doesn't mean they've got an angle on it that an animal doesn't have. In other words, our self-importance blinds us to the fact that actually we know just as much as the animals do.. principally because we are animals.
 
hold on one moment guys and i'll get my dog to answer the question for you guysdm,sAK:adsmKadsm
 
I think animals relate to death in a much more peaceful manner. Kind of like sleep. Cats can leave their bodies and astral travel when they curl up, etc.

Animals have stronger physical and spiritual instincts, as they're not civilised like us.
 
louis_wain_wallpaper_cat_print-1.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top