Abstract
Theorists arguing that non-human animals (simply animals from this point forward) are self-aware often make the case on the basis that non-human species understand aspects of themselves and the world, and these forms of understanding indicate self-awareness. But the notion of understanding in this context is often taken for granted. This article aims to analyse the nature of animal understanding to clarify the kind of understanding that matters for discussions of self-awareness, namely, self-understanding. I proceed by drawing on discussions of understanding offered in contemporary epistemology, and then by discussing the relevance of the concept of self-understanding here for discussions of animal self-awareness. I argue that the kind of self-understanding relevant to discussions of animal self-awareness is specifically an animal’s understanding of its own causal influence on the world and on others.
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Acknowledgements and Funding
I would like to thank Dr. Alecia Carter (UCL) for discussion of these issues and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. I would like to thank the Templeton World Charity Foundation for funding that allowed for the time to complete this article (TWCF0502).
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Woodford, P. (2023). Animal Understanding and Animal Self-Awareness. In: Viejo, J.M., Sanjuán, M. (eds) Life and Mind. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30304-3_2
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