Do Animals Have Souls?

Abstract

A shorter version of the following paper was presented in Oberwolfach, Germany in June, 1990, at a conference on the Souls of Animals organized jointly by the Schweitzer Center and Mobilization for Animals e. V.The question, whether animals have souls, is ambiguous.It can have a religious or a psychological meaning:• Do animals have (immortal) souls?• Do animals have inner life, i.e., do animals have subjective psychological experiences?At first I was not very happy with these alternatives, because both questions seemed unpromising for several reasons.I just want to mention two of these reasons:• Whether animals have immortal souls is as incapable of proof as is the existence of God;• That animals do have inner life seems to be a rather obvious assertion.Upon reflection, though, the second, psychological question doesn't seem so unimportant to me after all.Though today no one would be likely to defend the Cartesian position that animals are insensible robots explicitly, this attitude nevertheless still operates implicitly and subconsciously.

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