Do Bats Know What it is Like to be Human?

Do Bats Know What it is Like to be Human?

One answer would be that we don’t know whether they do or can know what it’s like to be human, because of the problem of bat other minds. That is a boring answer and, I think, incorrect; in any case, I will ignore it. We know enough about bat minds to know whether or not they know what it’s like to be human. And I believe the simple answer is that they do know. This is because we don’t have any senses they don’t have. They have one sense we don’t have (echolocation), but we don’t have a sense they don’t have. Their senses may not be as acute as ours (e.g., sight), but they have the basic phenomenology associated with our five senses; they are not totally in the dark about what it’s like to be human from a sensory point of view. Someone might say bats can’t have such knowledge, because their cognitive abilities are too limited to know anything of the kind. They don’t even know what it’s like to be a mouse. Again, this answer is boring and, I think, incorrect: they know what’s it’s like to be them, and other animals share that subjectivity to a sufficient degree to ground knowledge of other animal minds. Bats know what it is like to see and hear (etc.) generally. Basically, all mammals know what it is like to be a mammal, so long as their sense modalities overlap. They know each other’s mode of sensory consciousness. Indeed, the same point applies to reptiles and birds, fish and octopuses. So, perhaps surprisingly, animals have good knowledge of what it’s like to be most other animals, including humans. Even mice know what it’s like to be human!

But that point only applies to sensory consciousness, and it is not the only kind. What about what may be called a priori consciousness—logical, mathematical, ethical, philosophical? Assuming that bats don’t have that kind of consciousness, do they know what it’s like to be human? I think not. In fact, I am doubtful that any animal knows what human a priori consciousness is like, even our closest relatives. Of course, if they have a kind of closeted a priori mental life, then they can know what it’s like to be us; but there is no evidence for this and it seems clearly false. So, there is a large part of what it’s like to be human that bats and other animals don’t and can’t know.  Nor can humans who lack rational faculties, say because of brain abnormality. Human intelligence (of an advanced kind) is not knowable by animals in general; they don’t know what it’s like to have the kind of intelligence we have. We can know what it’s like to have bat intelligence, but they can’t know what it’s like to have human intelligence—though they do know what it’s like to have human sensations. If a bat were to write a paper called “What is it Like to be Human?”, the answer would have to be “We don’t know”, or “We know some but not all”. The topic of animal knowledge of other minds is a neglected area, but part of psychological zoology. I am just laying the groundwork here.[1]

[1] I think we know exactly what it’s like to be a dinosaur, sensorily and intellectually, and I think they know what it’s like to be a human sensorily—but not intellectually. We humans are distinctive in having a developed a priori form of consciousness. It is like having another sense.