Book Review: Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith

 A fascinating deep dive (!) into other consciousnesses.

2016 bestseller by Peter Godfrey-Smith on the evolution and nature of consciousness.

Anyone who has seen the excellent Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher will be in no doubt that there is an extremely complex realm of thought at play among the cephalopods. The ocean is the source of all life with its single celled organisms and on a different branch to us mammals, they have still chanced to have a large cache of neurons in a decentralised brain.

While the writing can be a little muddled and opaque at times, the evolutionary history and philosophy more than make up for this. Godfrey-Smith scuba dives among the residents at “Octopolis” and recalls their behaviour in rich detail.

Nagel asked us what it means to be a bat and here we ponder what could it be like to see colour through your arms/legs and camouflage yourself accordingly? Arms/Legs that are replete with neurons and have their own individual level of action and autonomy.

An imprisoned octopus recognises the staff members in a laboratory and squirts water at their least favourite individual. A state of captivity of course isn’t suitable for making any overarching judgments. Also listed are flawed, unethical tests in which the individuals are given negative punishment (electrocutions etc) and poor, unsuitable rewards.

A surprising teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity

It was telling that the author described the pre-Cambrian times of peaceful, non-competitive life as a “Garden Of Eden.” Who could ever claim it was a boon for sentient life to need weapons, antenna and eyes-as defences-and become “red in tooth and claw”? Unimaginable levels of suffering have followed.

On which topic, Cartesian arrogance that plants us at the centre of creation is being eroded one finding at a time as other species show themselves to be more advanced than previously thought. Often in ways that needn’t involve anthropocentric criteria.

As Yuval Noah Harari asserts, our industrial scale exploitation and killing of other sentient beings will surely come to be understood as a huge moral wrong. Many members of the public recently bristled at the proposition of a new octopus farm but it is long overdue that we equally oppose the farming of cows, pigs and chickens.

The Family That Preys Together

 The Zouma cat case highlights stark cultural divides in attitudes regarding other animals

In the UK it has been impossible to miss the story of Kurt Zouma, an £125,000 a week athlete who kicked and slapped a cat on camera, while his family respond joyfully. His laughing brother, non-league footballer Dagenham and Redbridge’s Yoan Zouma thought this sadistic display was a funny moment to record, upload and share to social media.

However, this impulse was poorly judged and their host country strongly disagreed. This is the UK, a “nation of animal lovers” where (especially) cats and dogs are treated like a member of the family by many. Outrage and petitions followed, West Ham’s decision to start Zouma in the next match against Watford was viewed as tone deaf.

Lineker’s Tweet captured the mood of many Brits

He was roundly booed by both sets of supporters. The RSPCA correctly stepped in to seize the two cats from Zouma’s property and West Ham later fined him two weeks wages and announced he would miss their next match.

Not everyone was contrite though. The big football leagues of Europe are followed globally, particularly across the African diaspora. A large number of whom weren’t willing to throw their man under the bus. Social media that had previously seen posters defend UK-based footballers Benjamin Mendy and Mason Greenwood (Accused of rapes and assaults, trending #1 in South African news) now came out in force to question the importance of a man beating “his” cat.

A snippet from a significant online phenomenon

A cultural chasm in attitudes towards other animals was apparent as the two disparate worldviews battled in social media’s football forums. Zouma’s West Ham teammate Michail Antonio came forward to practice some classic whataboutery asking “Is what he’s done worse than racism?” BBC’s Question Time programme amplified another voice downplaying the cat’s plight.

This is where it gets especially interesting. The defenders of Zouma may be speciesists who hardly value other animals morally, but some were able to expose the hypocrisy of the offended Brits. A few asked the “pet lovers” if they eat meat and pointed out that Adidas (a sponsor who pulled funding), profit from the sale of leather skin boots. Cue outraged responses that killing and skinning a cow for boots or her flesh is a different matter. Perhaps it was only the needless cruelty of this case that made it uniquely bad?

In explicit contrast to Jack’s rhetoric, a cow like any other traditionally farmed animal is no different to a cat in their interests. They too are sentient beings that we should morally avoid causing any unnecessary harm or suffering. An example of necessary harm might be self defence against an attack from a bull but can leather shoes and animal products such as flesh, dairy and eggs truly be said to be necessary?

Both the British and American Dietetic Associations confirm vegan diets to be perfectly healthy, even beneficial and protective by several criteria of health. Therefore we can’t claim that the exploitation and killing of sentient beings is nutritionally necessary.

Rather, just as Zouma and company were party to the menacing of an innocent cat for reasons of sadistic pleasure, so too are non-vegans guilty of consuming according to frivolous gustatory pleasure. They make up 99% of society and are overtly valuing the titillation of their palate over the needless suffering of billions upon billions of farmed animals.

As such, I will leave the last word here to the least hypocritical response I witnessed in the entire discourse. Complete, unsurprisingly, with ethically illiterate responses of “plants though”.

Originally published February 11 2022 at: The Family That Preys Together. The Zouma cat case highlight stark… | by Marcus Dredge | Medium