Mentophobia

Mentophobia or mentaphobia is a concept described by Donald Griffin, an American zoologist and the founder of cognitive ethology, to denote strong resistance from scientists to the idea that animals, other than humans, are conscious.[1][2] Griffin argued that there is a taboo "against scientific consideration of private, conscious, mental experiences" that leads to the minimization of the significance of the consciousness of non-human animals, as well as human consciousness and asserted that this presents a significant barrier to scientific progress.[3]

Mentophobia has been likened to Frans de Waal's concept of anthropodenial:[1] "a blindness to the humanlike characteristics of other animals, or the animal-like characteristics of ourselves".[4] It has also been compared with an observation by Daniel Dennett that "a curious asymmetry can be observed" when it comes to the certainty of human consciousness not being required for moral certainty, but moral certainty is not applied when it comes to the experiences of other animals.[5]

David Chauvet in Contre la Mentaphobie ("Against Mentaphobia"), argues that the denial of the consciousness of animals alleviates the guilt that is associated with abuses directed towards them.[6]

References
  1. Sueur, Cédric; Forin-Wiart, Marie-Amélie; Pelé, Marie (December 2020). "Are They Really Trying to Save Their Buddy? The Anthropomorphism of Animal Epimeletic Behaviours". Animals. 10 (12): 2323. doi:10.3390/ani10122323. PMC 7762333. PMID 33297457.
  2. Ricard, Matthieu (2016). A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion (First English ed.). Boulder: Shambhala. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8348-4054-6. OCLC 960042213.
  3. Griffin, Donald R. (1998-07-10). "From cognition to consciousness". Animal Cognition. 1 (1): 3–16. doi:10.1007/s100710050002. ISSN 1435-9448. S2CID 35714482.
  4. Waal, Frans de (January 19, 1997). "Are We in Anthropodenial?". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  5. Waldau, Paul (2013). Animal Studies: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-19-996839-8. OCLC 839301846.
  6. Chauvet, David (2014). Contre la Mentaphobie [Against Mentaphobia]. Lausanne (Suisse): L'Age d'homme. ISBN 978-2-8251-4367-4. OCLC 881573845.

Further reading
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