BradCube said:
Or adult human for that matter
withoutaface said:
Self awareness also encompasses self consciousness, which is the ability to be aware of one's actions as well as one's self, and posess the capacity to be embarrassed, shy, etc, which afaik only humans posess.
The above definition is a little flawed. I remember watching many a documentary, and chimpanzees' social interactions are quite complex, particularly as an individual chimpanzee and how its actions affect its society. I'm positive they are able to feel embarassed, or something along the lines of acting upon something, then later feeling regretful, by showing remorse or a reluctance to show confidence.
Being shy I feel is with any animal below the intellect of a chimp - being shy as a by-product of fear.
Obviously I am pro-choice (early abortions, for the final time), but I stress the self-awareness of certain animals (being two other species). I don't believe a fetus is self-aware in the first trimester, nor does it feel pain, and yes, I do find it morally disturbing for someone to be okay slaying an adult chimp moreso than a fetus, which is not self aware.
But to switch sides.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/parents/advice/article.php?contentId=864&
Babies' sense of self begins with their earliest explorations of their bodies; the parents' role at this time is to create a positive atmosphere for this self-discovery. When a three-month-old plays with her fingers and toes, for example, she is gaining an awareness of her physical self—an early step in the process of self-discovery.
Infants as young as six months of age begin to sense that they are separate from their mothers and fathers, according to Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D., the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor in Child Development and Education at Teachers College at Columbia University.
By 9 to 12 months infants can tell the difference between themselves and other babies, Dr. Brooks-Gunn says. Her studies of babies, conducted with video cameras and television monitors, showed that children as young as nine months could distinguish between live images of themselves on television and taped images of other infants. The babies smiled and were more captivated with the live images of themselves.
At about 15 to 24 months babies start to become even more conscious of self. In another study, conducted by Dr. Brooks-Gunn and Dr. Lewis, 9- to 6-month-old babies were first allowed to look at themselves in a mirror. Afterward, the researchers had the babies' mothers discreetly place a dot of rouge on the youngsters' noses. The babies were then prompted to look in the mirror again. Those younger than 15 months of age, not realizing that they were looking at reflections of themselves, ignored the red dot. But children 15 months and older looked in the mirror and touched the dot on their nose. "The babies' actions in this study suggest that they're thinking to themselves, 'That's me!'" Dr. Lewis says. The older babies clearly recognized that they were in fact looking at their own reflection in the mirror.
Though of course, if it comes down to self-awareness, you could technically slay a child when they are 1 month old, which in theory should be about the same as killing a cow for beef but not an adult human. So clearly killing a fetus,
does not equal to kill an adult human (under the idea of self-awareness)
Or course, under these ideas, you could slay an 8 month old child and be technically under the "self-awareness" rule, but then morals come in, ie whether it feels pain.
So self-awareness is not where you draw the line.
For me, and referring to the information above, it's pain that is the deciding factor, not self-awareness.
