Chimeras, Centaurs and Animal Consciousness: A Note on Ades’ Paper.

Résumé

It is to Professor Ades’ credit that he took the pains to address the question of consciousness: the less it is discussed the more naive will be our notions about it. Ades shows that there must be objective criteria to attribute properties to animals. Otherwise, the animal of Science will not be different from mythological hybrids. This note suggests, however, that as the reader follows the Author’s skilful efforts to undo some of the knots of the problem, he may find himself entangled amidst new viscous threads, particulary the idea that there is a kind of consciousness which is unique to man.