The New York Declaration 2024 On Animal Consciousness — A Discussion For Both Science And Philosophy

On 19 April, 2024, a diverse group of well known scientists and philosophers came together in New York and signed a declaration.

The declaration was brief, running into four brief paragraphs:

-Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged.

-First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and birds.

-Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks.

The declaration, now known as the ‘New York Declaration of Animal Consciousness’ has to it signatures of neuroscientists like Anil Seth and Christof Koch and philosophers of consciousness like David Chalmers of the ‘Hard problem’ of consciousness fame etc.

This has serious ethical implications for science.

From laboratories to interactions with animals in their natural habitats, this issue can have serious implications. Intense debates among scientists and philosophers have ensued, with significant voices questioning this approach.

To appreciate what is at stake here, we need some background.

The neocortex is an interesting part of the brain. Though found commonly in mammalian species, in humans it is considered the most recently evolved part of the brain and is associated with higher cognitive functions which are considered uniquely human.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) in his, Dragons of Eden (1977) suggests that an intuitive understanding of this view can be found in the genesis myth of the Bible.

In Genesis 3:16, the Biblical God curses the woman: ‘In pain shalt thou bring forth children.’ The reason for this curse was that humans had developed higher brain functions like the distinction between right and wrong. This also cleaved them from the primordial unity with the rest of existence — the perfect harmony in the Garden of Eden.

Humans became self-conscious, unlike the rest of the animals. This was expressed in the mythological language of the Bible as they clothed themselves and became embarrassed of their nudity. While the reptilian-mammalian divide in the brain that he proposed is now under question, this perspective remains a significant interpretation of the Genesis myth.

In other cultures, including Hindu culture, similar discussions on human uniqueness and the separation of humans from other animals can be seen. For example:

(Eating, sleeping, fear and sex — these habits are common between humans and animals. It is Dharma which is the special quality of humans. Without the Dharma, they are similar to animals).

So apart from the human-uniqueness stand that almost all religions and derived ethical systems have, does Hindu Dharma offer anything different with respect to the problem of animal consciousness and the ethical implications of acknowledging it?

In the famous Saivite temple of Thiruvarur is the stone sculpture of Manu Neethi Chozha who ran his chariot upon his own son because his son accidentally ran a chariot on a calf.

The mother cow had demanded justice by merely pulling the grievance bell meant for the king's subjects.

Whatever the factual truth or imaginative content of the incident, it is part of the collective memory and civilizational ideal of Hindu society. Hindu Dharma recognised the right of non-human animals to get justice because their pain is as true as the pain of humans.

These beautiful narratives, which imbue India's value system, prioritise respecting all life rather than emphasising the uniqueness of the human species and any form of superiority. They stem from the non-dualistic Vedantic vision.

Thus, the Kena Upanishad declares that every pulsation of cognition contains in it the light of consciousness and one who knows that alone attains immortal liberation: pratibodha viditaṃ matamamṛtatvaṃ hi vindate (2.4). Vedantic non-duality embraces all life.

To him, many aspects of the human mind also had evolutionary continuity with other animals.

Darwin essentially uncovered a principle of unity in diversity, showing how life diversifies through natural selection and the branching of the phylogenetic tree. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna emphasises that one who experiences this one-in-many and many evolving from one realises Brahman (BG 13:31).

The New York Declaration 2024 on animal consciousness is a commentary in context to that Mahavakya.

Further reading:

-A 2016 Swarajya article on insect consciousness and self-awareness: here.

-2012: Cambridge Declaration on consciousness: here

-2024: New York Declaration on animal consciousness: here