Animal Consciousness

From snoozing puppies kicking their legs to controversial octopi who change colors while asleep, nonhuman dreaming fascinates us. Science says that sleeping animals experience “reality simulations,” rich dreamscapes which they navigate as conscious agents. Inspired by David’s book When Animals Dream (fresh off the press!), this episode kicks off a 3-part series tracing his thrilling investigation into the nature and philosophical implications of animal dreaming. Episode 52 introduces David’s argument that animals’ capacity to dream reveals the need to radically rethink animals as conscious beings with complex inner lives.

Works Discussed:

David Peña-Guzmán, When Animals Dream
Nature (S38 E1), PBS TV
Elizabeth Preston, "Was Heidi the Octopus Really Dreaming?"
William Lauder Lindsay, Mind in the Lower Animals in Health and Disease
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
Evan Thompson, Waking, Dreaming, Being
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds
Ratatouille (2007)

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