Abstract

Developing a point originally made by Thomas Nagel, I argue that animals can be credited with a form of consciousness. The condition for such an attribution is the acceptance of a distinction between its private and its subjective characters, both of which pertain to the realm of phenomenal consciousness. The distinction between these two characters of consciousness is fixed on the degrees of conceptualization an animal is capable of. Finally, the mirror test for self-recognition, considered by many authors as the hallmark for animals consciousness, is discussed and criticized.