> is rooted in the idea that animals can experience emotion
Is this really still a question? Isn't it common sense that many animals do have emotions? If you call emotion a state of mind, controlled by a flood of certain hormones/neurotransmitters into the brain, then even the most simple animals will have at least fear emotion. I'm pretty sure most developed animals like elephants, orcas, etc., have pretty complex emotions that are not too far from humans.
Sometimes it seems obvious they do. Other times you think they seem to be having an experience, but it's not really comparable to human emotions. And several times per day you doubt the presence of higher brain functions in the people around you.
Why should the 'emotions' animals can or can not experience have to be like 'human emotions' though? Maybe the dog can be 'sad' in a way that isn't exactly like sadness as experienced by humans, but it's still an emotion, right?
It doesn't matter how it seems though. Fact is they have.
What many are not aware of, is that when they mean "animals have emotions", they actually mean "animals have exact same emotions as human", which is false. But saying that animals don't have emotions is the same as saying that dogs are blind just because they can't differentiate some colors humans can.
Is this really still a question? Isn't it common sense that many animals do have emotions? If you call emotion a state of mind, controlled by a flood of certain hormones/neurotransmitters into the brain, then even the most simple animals will have at least fear emotion. I'm pretty sure most developed animals like elephants, orcas, etc., have pretty complex emotions that are not too far from humans.