Re: article on fish pain

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Lazarus noted that:

> Kind of interesting that people wondered if fish feel
> pain.  Seems like it would be tough to survive if you
> couldn't recognize dangerous, noxious stimuli.

Good POint.

Responding to stimuli and feeling pain aren't necessarily
the same thing, even under a compreshensive functional and
purely "physicalist" description.  It appears that some
creatures have such a low level of cognitive ability, or
are so lacking in displaying any evidence of cognitive
activity, that it's reasonable to conclude that they have
such a small sentient capacity and might at best be dimly
aware of anything.

I don't know where fish fit in on the cognitive capacity
scale.  I don't think it's possible to torture an amoeba,
but I'm sure it's possible to torture a dog.  I think it's
possible to torture a fish.

Scott H.

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com