So, argument from complexity? We just have too much of an emotional range to not have souls?
Argument from inaccuracy, more like. Various other animals (dolphins, chimps, magpies are the best known) have been shown to be self-aware so his argument fails at the first sentence.
My argument fails nowhere, but is merely open to speculation.
And.. I think you are rating too whatever smattering of awareness animals might have. Sure, then know they are alive, but there has been zero proof offered that they posses any concept of "the big picture" or their place in the cosmos. They do not ponder life and death.
It seems like you’re taking a lot of assumptions into consideration. The fact that social animals have a hierarchy doesn’t necessarily imply that they are self-evident. First, I think you would have to disprove the idea that these social groupings are genetic.
It’s quite possible that through natural selection, these animals have adapted a trait which makes them social which makes sense because the animals who have a genetic predisposition to group together would have a higher chance of surviving. If this is the case, then the idea that these animals are social isn’t enough to suggest self-awareness. Also, being
aware of other animals doesn’t necessarily imply
self-awareness. It’s possible to be aware, unconsciously, of light but not be aware of your self in relation to light.
It seems almost far-fetched and hard to imagine because we live in our minds and can’t imagine a world without conscious thought; however, it’s been proven in humans who have had extreme damage to a certain part of their brain at a young age so that they can’t see, that although they are “blind,” when asked to “guess” visual things such as the shape of a book they are accurate above 80% of the time which is too high to be attributed to chance. In this example, they are unaware that they are aware of their visual abilities because their brain can’t process vision the same way a normal human brain can but they can still show what they see.
So.... although they are not self-aware of their visual abilities, their subconscious mind is aware of the world outside of it.
It’s these arguments which lead scientists to argue that not all mammals have consciousness; however, it is a “curse” of human self-consciousness to anthropomorphize.
Animals on the other hand cannot possibly do this--that is, whatever an animal version of "anthropomorphize" would be.