Paper 3

I will argue that Ccreatures like cats and dogs have minds. There Their minds may not be as highly developed or as intricate as ours as human beings, but I believe that they have minds in some capacity. This paragraph states the thesis the paper will argue for.

I will argue that creatures like cats and dogs have minds. Their minds may not be as highly developed or as intricate as ours, but they have minds in some capacity.

Granted One might claim that cats and dogs lack minds, because many of the daily functions that a cat or a dog performs ---whether it be scratching off fleesfleas, licking themselves clean, eating, and sleeping etc. ---are innate behaviors that can be likened to a machine-like "program" or the "hardware wiring" of the animal. While these everyday actions can not prove that these animals have minds and seem to just strengthen the notion that these animals are simply following a machine-like program However, there are other actions that these animals perform that can be observed as possible proof of possession of a mind support the claim that they have minds.

One might claim that cats and dogs lack minds, because many of the daily functions that a cat or a dog performs---whether it be scratching off fleas, licking themselves clean, eating, sleeping, and so on---are innate behaviors that can be likened to a machine-like "program" or the "hardware wiring" of the animal. However, there are other actions that these animals perform that support the claim that they have minds.

Dogs for example can be taught to perform tricks or actions upon command. Although this does not seem to us This may not seem like it requires a lot of rigorous thought and comprehension on the dog's part, but it does demonstrate a definite ability to learn. The dog must learn the required task and whenever it hears the command, it must be able to use its memory to recall with it's memory to perform the appropriate actions associated with that specific command. This presents your basic point: that the more sophististicated actions dogs perform aren't hard-wired. The next two paragraphs elaborate on that basic point. That's useful. But you don't need to go into so much detail, since it should be clear to the reader what you're trying to say, and the extra detail doesn't really contribute to your argument.

Dogs for example can be taught to perform tricks or actions upon command. This may not seem like it requires a lot of rigorous thought and comprehension on the dog's part, but it does demonstrate a definite ability to learn. The dog must learn the required task and whenever it hears the command, it must be able to use its memory to recall to perform the actions associated with that specific command.

Similarly there are mMany dogs that are trained to perform actions on a more advanced level. For example, seeing-eye dogs which greatly help blind people walk around and function in the world. They are trained to guide their master on the street and the sidewalk and make sure that they don't bump into anything and that they do not cross a street while the cars are coming. There are also wWatchdogs which guard houses and valuables and are able to sense danger and intruders. There are FBI dogs and Police dogs called "Working Dogs" which are trained to sniff our drugs, money, bombs and people. They aid in apprehending criminals, in missing persons investigations, and in search and rescue for disaster victims. And so on.

Many dogs are trained to perform actions on a more advanced level. For example, seeing-eye dogs greatly help blind people walk around and function in the world. Watchdogs guard houses and valuables and are able to sense danger and intruders. And so on.

Besides for the fact that these animals can be trained to perform menial tasks as well as more significant ones there is other evidence that these animals potentially have some form of a mind. It is common eEvery once in a while to hear, one hears a story on the news in which someone's life was saved by their pet dog. Although these dogs were just average dogs who did not receive any kind of training, they had the sense and the awareness that their owner was in some sort of trouble and either went to get help, or in other cases rescued their owners themselves. This was not something that was taught to them by specialists or their owners. tThese dogs saw a situation, analyzed it, realized that something needed to be done and devised a plan for the best course of action. This is more of the same: sophisticated behavior that dogs weren't trained or hard-wired to do. It's good that you have a variety of evidence. But it helps your argument to keep it streamlined. You don't need to go into lots of detail about each example. In many papers, it's going to be a struggle to fit all the pieces you need into the assigned length limits. So get in the habit of saying what you need to say efficiently.

Every once in a while, one hears a story in the news in which someone's life was saved by their pet dog. Although these dogs were just average dogs who did not receive any kind of training, they had the sense and the awareness that their owner was in some sort of trouble, and either went to get help, or in other cases rescued their owners immediately. This was not something that was taught to them by specialists or their owners. These dogs saw a situation, analyzed it, realized that something needed to be done and devised a plan for the best course of action.

Other Another kind of evidence of for the existence of a mind includes the language dogs employ while conversing with other dogs. Here you introduce a new argument that dogs and cats have minds. It would be better to separate this off into its own paragraph, and to tell us more about what you have in mind. Another kind of evidence for the existence of a mind includes the language dogs employ while conversing with other dogs. Additionally, it is sometimes Finally, sometimes a dog's behavior just makes it very apparent that the dogs have feelings and emotions. It is obvious common to see a dog that is in pain moan and pout. Sometimes when an owner is yelling at his dog his ears bend over drooping down as the dog puts it's its tail between it's its legs. Clearly the dog understands understands that it is being reprimanded and it's. Clearly it also has emotions and feelings emotions and feelings. that it has These are evident in it's its actions. This is a third argument in support of your thesis. An unsympathetic reader might say, "The author is just saying that his claim is obvious. That's not an argument." However, I don't think that's fair. There's plausibility to the idea that it does sometimes just look to us like animals understand things, feel emotions, and so on. Of course, that can't settle the issue. There are all sorts of explanations of why it might look like that to us. Maybe we're just anthropomorphizing or projecting human emotions onto the animals, like we do onto stuffed dolls. The paper would be stronger if you explained why you didn't think that's what happening. However, the fact that animals do look this way to us is already one prima facie supporting consideration in support of animals really having minds; and it's fair for you to say so.

Another kind of evidence for the existence of a mind includes the language dogs employ while conversing with other dogs.

Finally, sometimes a dog's behavior just makes it very apparent that the dogs have feelings and emotions. It is common to see a dog that is in pain moan and pout. Sometimes when an owner is yelling at his dog his ears bend over drooping down as the dog puts its tail between its legs. Clearly the dog understands that it is being reprimanded. Clearly it also has emotions and feelings. These are evident in its actions.

Again, I am not in any way saying that dogs have minds comparable to humans, nor am I saying that a dog's mind is fully developed in any way. hHowever it seems very, the evidence I've cited makes it seem likely that they do possess a mind on some level.

Again, I am not saying that dogs have minds comparable to humans, nor am I saying that a dog's mind is fully developed. However, the evidence I've cited makes it seem likely that they do possess a mind on some level.