I am currently working through a review of the rhetoric of animals, and the process has led me to one question. Why do we doubt that animals have agency? To put it another way, why do we question the conscious intentionality of animals in their abilities to vocalize and gesture, with a purpose, to another animal (human or nonhuman)? Even Aristotle saw that animals “possess traces of the characteristics to do with the soul” (57); moreover, he recognized that animals don’t just “hear sounds” but can “distinguish the differences between the signs” (215).
Thought-provoking post by Aaron Moe, whose "Merwin Studies" site has recently caught my attention. The post raises questions about conscious agency and moral conscience among non-human animals.
