ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the comparative evidence suggests that even though some animals may have an active mental life that includes thoughts and goals, it is unlikely that the nonhuman animal's experience of its mental life is similar to human beings' experience of their mental life. It begins by looking some more at the ways in which prairie vole consolation behavior is similar to empathetic behavior found in human beings. The chapter seeks to remarkable planning behavior by a chimpanzee. Careful consideration of this behavior and the nature of the evidence it provides for the understanding of chimpanzee minds indicates the role a concept of the self plays in human mental life. While the consensus seems to be that chimpanzees do recognize themselves in the mirror, and that such recognition is mediated by a self-concept, the data are not as clear as this consensus would suggest.
