Studies of the behavior of social animals have led many scientists to believe that all such animals may be using sophisticated systems of communication that are not yet recognized for what they are. Although animals cannot use language in the human sense, a variety of animals are capable of using sounds, signals, or explicit behavior to exchange information about objects in their natural environment. Scientists are moving closer to accepting the fact that animals communicate with their own species, with other species, and even with human beings.
The simple view of animal communication is that these creatures merely convey evidence of physiological states that are not under their control. For instance, the human action of blinking an eye is different from the human action of winking an eye. The human blink is the result of a physiological process or reaction to some physical stimulus whereas the eye wink is an intentional signal meant to convey a purpose. Animal behaviorists claim that animals are incapable of conscious thinking thus, using the above example, an animal can blink but not wink its eye.
Disbelief in the capacity of animals to communicate thoughts and feelings is based on arguments put forth by French philosopher Descartes in the mid-1600s. Descartes likened animals to machines because nonhuman creatures lacked the ability to reason and think. Animals, who learned only by experience, were inferior to human beings, who possessed the ability to learn through a variety of means. Descartes' basic arguments have been extrapolated by modern psychologists, who argue that animal experience is related exclusively to the present.
Granted, animals are largely incapable of complex thought. Even primates, mammals closely related in ancestry and morphology to humans, could never attain the language competency of human beings. But psychologists who argue for animal consciousness contend that Descartes and his pro...