Animals and the Concept of Death

Humans have long been understood as the only creatures who have a concept of death. Animals have historically been portrayed as creatures who cannot understand what happens to another being when it dies, and who have absolutely no clue about their own mortality. Within the field of animal ethics, animals purported lack of a concept of death has been used by many authors to argue that killing an animal poses no ethical problem, so long as it is done in a quick and painless manner. In recent years, however, scientists have begun to gather evidence that suggests that this view of animals may be mistaken. Chimpanzees have been seen apparently testing for signs of life and offering nurturance to dead bodies of other chimpanzees. Crows have been found to gather around their deceased to learn about the circumstances of their death and potential sources of danger. Mothers from a wide range of species have been witnessed carrying the bodies of their dead infants for long periods of time. Does this all mean that these animals can understand death? Or are these behaviours the result of instincts, hormones gone awry, or simple confusion? This project, entitled Animals and the Concept of Death, aims to give an answer to these questions by engaging in the first in-depth philosophical exploration of animals understanding of death. The project will consist of two main tasks. The first task is to determine exactly what it means for an animal to possess a concept of death. Using the literature on concept possession in animals from the field of philosophy of animal minds, as well as the research on childrens understanding of death from the discipline of developmental psychology, this first task will result in a clear picture of the conditions that have to be met for an animal to be credited with possessing a concept of death. The second task will then be to look at the evidence that scientists have gathered so far, in order to see whether any of it actually supports the idea that animals have a concept of death.

This project sought to determine what it would mean for an animal to understand death and how extended the concept of death is likely to be in nature. By means of a philosophical analysis, the investigation concluded that understanding death, in minimal terms, amounts to understanding that dead individuals don't do the sorts of things that living beings typically do and that this is a permanent state. An examination of the cognitive requirements of such a 'minimal' concept of death, together with an analysis of the relevant empirical evidence, determined that such notion is fairly easy to acquire and we can expect it to be rather widespread in nature. That is, understanding death does not require complex cognition and many animal species will fulfil the necessary conditions. The project culminated in several open access publications in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as a book written in Spanish for a general audience. In addition, the project gave rise to an interdisciplinary collaboration with members of the Goffin Lab in Vienna, where two experiments are currently being carried out to test whether Goffin's cockatoos fulfil some of the cognitive requirements for understanding death. The results of the project have been disseminated in international conferences in Europe, the US, and Latin America. Outreach pieces have been published in The Conversation, Aeon, and the Spanish newspaper El Español. The project has also been featured in international media, including Nature Briefing, Der Spiegel, Australian national radio ABC, and the Hungarian magazine 168 ra.