Philosophers from all times have contemplated this problem; two of which are Rene Descartes and John Searle. It is my hope in this essay to present an overview of Descartes and Searle's theories as related to animal's minds and human minds while putting emphasis on their differences and similarities.

Rene Descartes is whom we owe the first account of the mind/body relationship to. Descartes can be seen as a duelist, someone who believes that the mind and the body are not only separate, but competent of independent existence. He is of the belief that animals can be considered extremely complex machines. However, he does not clearly state whether he is assured that animals do not have souls. Descartes states that even if machines having organ

Searle differs from Descartes in that he is not considered a dualist. Searle believes that the mind is caused by the brain and that the mind is merely a feature of the brain.

According to Searle, animals have "conscious mental states, such as visual experiences, feelings of pain, and sensations of thirst and hunger, and of cold and heat." Searle came to this conclusion based on two theories: the common theory and his own interpretation of this common theory.

s and shapes of specific animals could be created, we would have no real way to notice that these were not real animals.

Furthermore, there is no other animal that can speak and communicate like humans. Descartes uses the example of a parrot to illustrate this idea. Sure parrots can be taught to speak words like humans, but they do not have the capacity to ever be able to formulate sentences and have a conversation like humans so. Therefore, they must not be made with a mi

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Approximate Word count = 635
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)