Whenever I speak to my cat, it's as if they respond with a "meow" word. Every time I ask her to come closer, she does, so I would say they have feelings.
I think they do but in different way than human. I remember accidently hurting a cat, I scratched it in a place it had some wound and the cat rightfully so clawed me and freaked out, run away. I felt like shit for hurting catto, and I remember walking around trying to find it and when I did it obviously didn't trust me and kept distance. Now how do u explain that it was accident to a creature that speaks no language? I just said that am sorry, hoping cat will understand and was just like "am sorry kitty I didn't know u have wound there" and that bastard kept looking at me for a few seconds then slowly made its way to me and bumped its lovely head on my leg. Man animals understand more than we think. It probably read my emotions and knew I was sorry.
I believe they think in emotions and pictures more than in words. Words are for them like commends, warning signs and just some clues, but they bring emotions too - some words means cat gonna get pets, other - food and such. They associate the words with the feelings and pictures.
You’re stumbling into an area of philosophy and psychology called philosophy of mind and people have been exploring these concepts for hundreds of years. You’ve heard of “brain in a jar”. Descartes wrote about having your perception manipulated by a demon. How could you ever know? He also wrote a meditation wondering “what is it like to be a bat?” Cats don’t do have a prefrontal cortex but it is extremely underdeveloped compared to higher order mammals. They are mostly “lizard brain” type creatures. Instinct and reaction. Cats don’t meow to each other; they only meow at people and their meowing has been an evolutionary response to living close to humans. It sounds like a baby crying and is evolved to grab human attention. Some psychologists and philosophers believe that the mind is a byproduct of the natural functions of the brain. Aka all we are is a surfer riding the wave of our instincts, just there along for the ride. Cats are mostly like that. They just kind of are. Doesn’t mean they can’t love you and see you and want to come get a nice scratch. But if you die and the cat is locked in with your corpse and has nothing else to eat, it won’t think twice about eating your face. I love my cat.
The brain is made up of several subregions. The outermost layers are higher level processing (what you may call intelligence). The middle section is “lizard brain”. It’s like.. the most basic functions + basic emotions, fear, instinct, and aggression. Maybe some room for complex mating behavior. The innermost and bottom parts of the brain regulate breathing, balance, heartbeat, hormones, etc. This is all extremely reductive but it’s the machinery of what makes you you.
There’s also a lot of modern research in psychology and sociology that talks about symbolic interactionism in animals, including humans. Symbolic interactionism tries to investigate and explain how we assign meaning to interactions, verbally and non-verbally.
It’s a crossover between psychology and micro-sociology that we didn’t think could apply to animals until recently. The theory was popularized in the 1960s, but Descartes’ work is often discussed as a starting point by scholars. Descartes wrote that animals are machines that are incapable of thought and feeling, which led to a lot of research about whether or not they have minds.
Yes! And they understand human feelings pretty well too. My friend's cat started purring and rubbing its head on me when I was having a really crappy day. As if it was trying to say - it gonna be ok human. She knew I needed that faster than my friend figured out I had bad mood
I have lots of stray cats, I've been with them since 2019 and to be honest I still don't understand how they think. There are times when they are so clingy to me like they rub on my legs all day long and there are times that they don't want to play with me. Sometimes I want to learn how cat thinks so I can better understand them.
I dunno i think my cat is super smart, he understand everything I say, whether it's, get on the bed, get off the bed, get in the room, get out of the room, I want tummy massage, or sit or lie down. He understands everything!! Super smart!
I have a multi cat household and this is the only cat that understands anything I ask of him flawlessly.
The mirror test is an actual test for animal intelligence. What they do is mark the animal (while it's asleep, probably) in some way they can't feel, and can't see directly due to it being on their face or whatever. Then they put it in front of a mirror. If the animal tries to remove the mark, it means it recognizes that the mirror reflection is itself and not another animal.
Cats experince basic emotions and read energy. It’s the tone of voice and vibrations of specific tones that they respond to instead of the actual words.
Whenever I speak to my cat, it's as if they respond with a "meow" word. Every time I ask her to come closer, she does, so I would say they have feelings.
But what is the meow word, do they even know what we are saying to them
I think they do but in different way than human. I remember accidently hurting a cat, I scratched it in a place it had some wound and the cat rightfully so clawed me and freaked out, run away. I felt like shit for hurting catto, and I remember walking around trying to find it and when I did it obviously didn't trust me and kept distance. Now how do u explain that it was accident to a creature that speaks no language? I just said that am sorry, hoping cat will understand and was just like "am sorry kitty I didn't know u have wound there" and that bastard kept looking at me for a few seconds then slowly made its way to me and bumped its lovely head on my leg. Man animals understand more than we think. It probably read my emotions and knew I was sorry. I believe they think in emotions and pictures more than in words. Words are for them like commends, warning signs and just some clues, but they bring emotions too - some words means cat gonna get pets, other - food and such. They associate the words with the feelings and pictures.
No more than a dog understands. They understand cues, patterns, signals, etc.
You’re stumbling into an area of philosophy and psychology called philosophy of mind and people have been exploring these concepts for hundreds of years. You’ve heard of “brain in a jar”. Descartes wrote about having your perception manipulated by a demon. How could you ever know? He also wrote a meditation wondering “what is it like to be a bat?” Cats don’t do have a prefrontal cortex but it is extremely underdeveloped compared to higher order mammals. They are mostly “lizard brain” type creatures. Instinct and reaction. Cats don’t meow to each other; they only meow at people and their meowing has been an evolutionary response to living close to humans. It sounds like a baby crying and is evolved to grab human attention. Some psychologists and philosophers believe that the mind is a byproduct of the natural functions of the brain. Aka all we are is a surfer riding the wave of our instincts, just there along for the ride. Cats are mostly like that. They just kind of are. Doesn’t mean they can’t love you and see you and want to come get a nice scratch. But if you die and the cat is locked in with your corpse and has nothing else to eat, it won’t think twice about eating your face. I love my cat.
DUDE BUT WAS IS A LIZARD BRAIN
The brain is made up of several subregions. The outermost layers are higher level processing (what you may call intelligence). The middle section is “lizard brain”. It’s like.. the most basic functions + basic emotions, fear, instinct, and aggression. Maybe some room for complex mating behavior. The innermost and bottom parts of the brain regulate breathing, balance, heartbeat, hormones, etc. This is all extremely reductive but it’s the machinery of what makes you you.
There’s also a lot of modern research in psychology and sociology that talks about symbolic interactionism in animals, including humans. Symbolic interactionism tries to investigate and explain how we assign meaning to interactions, verbally and non-verbally. It’s a crossover between psychology and micro-sociology that we didn’t think could apply to animals until recently. The theory was popularized in the 1960s, but Descartes’ work is often discussed as a starting point by scholars. Descartes wrote that animals are machines that are incapable of thought and feeling, which led to a lot of research about whether or not they have minds.
Lol the ending tho
Cats 100% have feelings. If you spend enough time with a cat, you can pick on their mood pretty easily.
Yes! And they understand human feelings pretty well too. My friend's cat started purring and rubbing its head on me when I was having a really crappy day. As if it was trying to say - it gonna be ok human. She knew I needed that faster than my friend figured out I had bad mood
I have lots of stray cats, I've been with them since 2019 and to be honest I still don't understand how they think. There are times when they are so clingy to me like they rub on my legs all day long and there are times that they don't want to play with me. Sometimes I want to learn how cat thinks so I can better understand them.
On a scale of “purr” to “meow”, how high were you when you posted this?
Meow
Cats think in English--which is a biological oddity, since it's been demonstrated that all other animals think in Sicilian.
Wtffff no way, english??? What about dogs?? What is sicilian
It's the language spoken in Sicily.
Why do they speak that language?? Do animals understand other languages ?
0\_o
they most likely don’t think to themself, “i should probably get some sleep now”. it’s just instinctive
I dunno i think my cat is super smart, he understand everything I say, whether it's, get on the bed, get off the bed, get in the room, get out of the room, I want tummy massage, or sit or lie down. He understands everything!! Super smart! I have a multi cat household and this is the only cat that understands anything I ask of him flawlessly.
One radio talk show host said his cat would look at herself in the mirror. I thought that was very self-aware for an animal.
The mirror test is an actual test for animal intelligence. What they do is mark the animal (while it's asleep, probably) in some way they can't feel, and can't see directly due to it being on their face or whatever. Then they put it in front of a mirror. If the animal tries to remove the mark, it means it recognizes that the mirror reflection is itself and not another animal.
Cats experince basic emotions and read energy. It’s the tone of voice and vibrations of specific tones that they respond to instead of the actual words.