Logic, reasoning, emotions, feelings... These qualities are universal in all living beings, depending on their level of development.
That we are able to reflect on our current feelings and compare them with past feelings identified as emotions shows what we have in common with the animal world.
Just as we ascribe feelings and emotions onto other people, so too do we ascribe these same feelings and emotions onto animals.
This is called anthropomorphization.
Anthropomorphization empowers, and is empowered by, the human cultural lens through which we view our emotions and feelings and reflect on them.
Yet survival is very real to animals, based on their level of development. An amoeba seeks nutrition to help it grow and multiply. A spider seeks prey so that it may survive to mate. Mice gather seeds and fruit for the same reason as other animals: to survive long enough to propagate. At the root of each living being is the drive for survival until propagation.
Yet the more advanced animals do have feelings of fear, anger and joy relative to their ability to express them.
The social structure of mammals and their relationship to other mammals including man prove that they are capable of feeling emotions but express each of them in physical ways.
A Canadian goose will slowly starve itself on the loss of its mate. We may be safe to say it died of a broken heart. A few of us will laugh nervously, and wonder aloud about the sentimentality of it all.
Indeed, I find it myopic to believe that only humans feel, and suffer. It would lead me to the conclusion that other animals and mammals cannot feel. Such a conclusion conflicts with my belief that the universe is a living organism.
Therefore, our anthropomorphization of animals helps us to interact with animals in a manner that is of mutual benefit to us all.
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