[...]
> More seriously, I think this whole debate hinges on
> the implicit assumption that humans are exceptional
> i.e. have a special faculty that no other species
> does. I think that such belief is rubbish by Miles's
> own standards - there is no scientific proof of that,
> other than subjective perceptions.
[...]
It's more like an axiom. What's interesting is that it's also considered a respectable stance for an intellectual to take -- that any ascribing of emotional states, cognition, etc., to anything other than humans regardless of the evidence presented is mere anthropomorphizing (which winds up becoming a tautology). It's an odd kind of pre-Darwinian/pre-Copernican throwback.
-- Andy