Holistic Approaches in Mental Health and Wellness
Cattle's concerns about Life and Death. Recognising Mental Aptitudes that Accompany Sentience and its Repercussions for Human Exceptionalism and Moral Obligations
Abstract
Marthe Kiley Worthington
Today, in many countries mammals are recognised as sentient. Sentience that is “feeling” is a necessary requirement for many mental attributes including learning, memory, acquiring knowledge and beliefs, having experiences, consciousness and self-consciousness, having a social contract, communicating, knowing others intentions (theory of mind), and being a moral agent. Some of these mental attributes have and still are considered unique to humans. Therefore, recognising sentience necessitate a re-examination of humanism and human exceptionalism. On re-examination, the fundamental human exceptional skills are (1) bipedalism (to develop elaborate manipulative skills) and (2) a language where the meaning is symbolic and therefore context independent. It is the mixing and merging of these two unique skills that has given rise to the arts, sciences and religions. By understanding where each species ontological similarities (summarised by the need for autonomy and freedoms,) and the species unique differences really are, our moral obligations to cattle in how they live and die including their affects on the living world can be assessed.