What is it like to be an animal?

LSE IQ | Intelligent questions with social science answers

Welcome back to a new season of LSE IQ, where we work with academics to bring you their latest research and ideas. In this episode, I’ll be asking What is it like to be an animal? We’ll travel to the local park to find out how smart dogs are, we’ll hear about a campaign arguing that chimpanzees are animals deserving of their own rights and, finally, we’ll ask whether insects and other invertebrates have feelings. This episode features Jonathan Birch, Associate Professor in LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Professor Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University (Toronto) and Dr Rosalind Arden, Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. Research Foundations of Animal Sentience Project Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers’ Brief, Kristin Andrews, Gary L Comstock, Crozier G.K.D., Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M John, L. Syd M Johnson, Robert C Jones, Will Kymlicka, Letitia Meynell, Nathan Nobis, David Pena-Guzman and Jeff Sebo. A general intelligence factor in dogs, Rosalind Arden, Mark James Adams, Intelligence Volume 55, March–April 2016, Pages 79-85 Contributors Dr Jonathan Birch Professor Kristin Andrews Dr Rosalind Arden