this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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I don't want to conflate the pragmatic use of tools or manipulation of the environment with questions about the meaning of life. Even most humans can’t do the latter. We have a lot of depressing research showing that most people can barely engage in abstract reasoning at all, let alone effectively.
I think nearly every sentient creature can be depressed and understand how badly life is going. But that’s different.
I don't think that's different, I think that's very related to the topic at hand
And yeah, that's all true. All living things can suffer, down to single cells
The real question here is where is the line between us and other animals. And I think you're almost there - you're on the verge of recognizing there is none, or maybe of internalizing that realization
Most animals don't often think about the meaning of life, just like most humans. They don't think to ask us either, because we're honestly a pretty foolish species. We're powerful and intelligent, but not wise
An orca, elephant, or corvid is probably the wisest being on earth right now. Possibly even a whole forest
Elephants are wise in that they’re concerned with (some of) the things that matter most — social bonds and creature comforts. But, as far as we know, they can’t scrutinize these concerns in abstraction, or reflect on the nature of wisdom or the metanormative conditions of their own experience.
We can do that — due to some freak accident of evolution that probably has to do with the recursivity of language and the self-referential nature of subjective experience. And again, when I say “we,” I mean some humans sometimes. Many “wise” humans are just like the elephants.
What are you even saying? What evidence do you have?
That sounds like a bunch of unfounded nonsense to me.
Elephants seem to clearly understand life and death, cause and effect, who fucked them over and where they ran off to
I'd bet the average elephant has a better grasp on the meaning of life than the average human
But that's exactly what I'm saying. There are elephants out there contemplating morality. Even dogs do it, even if it's massively based on the rules we impose on them
Not math though. Math exists in the minds of humans, it doesn't even exist in the universe. There is no two of anything, there's one object and another similar object
What does exist are ratios and harmonics, and animals have no problem understanding them
This is incorrect. Every animal we’ve ever researched, including insects like bees, can do arithmetic.
Anyway, not a single one of the examples you’ve given involves second-order reasoning. These are all prosaic interactions with the environment, which is how most animas (yes, including dumb humans) experience the world.
First-order reasoning: “What is moral?” Second-order reasoning: “Do moral beliefs constitute knowledge claims?”
First-order reasoning: “One plus one is two.” Second-order reasoning: “number theory is either inconsistent or incomplete.”
First-order reasoning: “What does this word mean?” Second-order reasoning: “How do words connect with their meanings?”
The examples I gave you are extreme, but to be fair so is your confusion.
I believe that orcas are out there having philosophical debates and singing stories of their history and mythology that dates back even further than our own. I don't think they're doing math proofs, but if they are I'd be curious what base they use
All the cutting edge science suggests we're not special. We are not different in kind from animals
Since science became a thing, we've been drawing lines between us and animals since we could no longer gesture to the soul. We've progressively disproven every single one. I've had this debate over various lines so many times
It's human arrogance