英语本科毕业论文-中西社会对动物的认识分析.doc

An Analysis of Awareness of Animals in Sino-Western SocietyAcknowledgementsI would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere and deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Chen Yu, for her valuable and constant patience and encouragement, and for her invaluable time to read through the whole paper as well as warm support and other expert guidance. Without her painstaking instruction, the completion of the present paper would not have been impossible. As resources, the library of Henan University of Technology and the stack room of Languages were invaluable.Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the teacher Du Qiaoge, who runs the course The Guidance of Thesis Writing. I am also greatly indebted to all the teaching staff in the School of Foreign Languages who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past four years. My appreciation and thanks are also extended to my classmates for their care and friendship in the hard times when I was writing and revising this paper. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends, especially my friends from my dormitory who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the paper.Finally, my greatest thanks give to my beloved family for their loving consideration and great confidence in me all through these years. Abstract In the long history of human development, animals play a very significant role in the world culture and civilization. And more and more animals are getting into our daily life. In current society, when we are advocating to live together in harmony with animals, more and more countries publish animal protection laws and animal welfare acts to make better living condition for these wildlife. At the same time, it is more and more important to strengthen animal protection welfare, treat animal better and take good care of the wildlife. The reasons lie in the fact that it is not only concerned with human health, but also related to our development and improvement. However, animal protection in our country is not as good as that of the Western countries. The national awareness of animal protection is relatively weak and maltreatment to animals happens very often. With the development of social civilization, animal protection has been a very important standard to judge the level of national civilization and an important condition to do international trade. This paper intends to discuss and analyze animal protection and welfare laws in China and Western countries through detecting the current conditions of animal treatment. It mainly consists of three parts: the first part focuses on different connotations of different animals in different cultural backgrounds; the second part discusses whether animals have consciousness or not through stating the studies of zoology; the third part states the animal welfare agencies in the world to analyze different treatments to animals in Sino-Western society. It aims at helping people to realize the importance of wildlife and take good measures to improve our society.Key words: animal consciousness; animal welfare; animal protection内容摘要在人类漫长的历史发展过程中动物与人们的生活息息相关，并越来越多地进入到人们的家庭生活中。在倡导人与动物和谐共处的当今社会，纵观全球，许多国家纷纷颁布了动物保护法，动物福利法。增强动物保护意识，善待动物，体现人文关怀，显得越来越重要。究其原因，这不仅关系到人们的身体健康，也关系到人类自身的发展与进步。然而目前我国的动物保护状况不容乐观，国民的动物保护意识比较淡薄，虐待动物的事件时有发生。随着社会文明的进步，动物保护已成为检验一个国家文明程度的重要标准和进行国际贸易的重要条件。 本文从我国动物保护以及动物福利法的现状入手，对国外及我国的动物福利及保护法进行分析和研究。文章主要包括三个部分：第一部分重点分析不同动物在中西方文化中的不同内涵；第二部分通过动物是否具有意识分析动物行为；第三部分对国内外动物福利立法进行分析，总结经验以供借鉴，旨在让读者意识到动物世界对人类文明所产生的影响，在物质、精神方面提高对动物的认识，并竭力倡导动物保护意识。关键词：动物意识；动物福利；动物保护iiiContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract(English)iiAbstract(Chinese)iii1. Introduction.12. Different animals and their different connotations in China and Western culture22.1 Same animal and the same connotation32.2 Same animal and their different connotations33. Analysis of animal consciousness43.1 Animal behavior43.2 Whether animals have consciousness54. Different treatment to animals in Sino-Western society64.1 Real condition of animal protection nationwide64.2 Differences of public attitude towards animals95. Conclusion9Works Cited11111. IntroductionIn the long history of human development, animals play a very significant role in the world culture and civilization. However, the importance of animals has never been widely sensed until the extinction of many kinds of rare animals. In the history, we human have ever thought that animals do not have sense, and we are superior to the lowly creatures and we disregard animals feelings, actions and pains. The method we communicate with animals is to eat, to experiment and for fun. Because of this attitude, we kill and maltreat animals mercilessly. But now with more and more precious creatures disappearing from our earth, we human begin to pay attention to these friends from nature. More and more biologists throw themselves to the nature and begin to explore the secret of wildlife. From then on, all kinds of amazing discoveries concerning wildlife are shown to the world. K. Lorenz, an ethnologist who comes from Austria, thinks animal behavior develops with environment development and that animal behavior can inherit from the previous generation（Lorenz 12）. He is the father of ethnology. After him, N. Tinbergen and K. Von. Frisch did a good job and excellent contribution to ethnology. Nowadays, we have little knowledge on the mechanism that decides animals behavior. The limited knowledge about the cause of animal behavior is gene, hormone and environment.In the book Through Our Eyes Only? The Search for Animal Consciousness, the author thinks animal consciousness is different from human beings even if we believe that animal has consciousness. Many researches tell us that animals have their emotions, feelings, pains and mentality, but the question whether animals have consciousness is still a mystery. In Peter Curruthers What Level of Cognitive Ability Implies Sentience? , he writes that only together with capacity of thinking, consciousness can happen, and it is reflected on the process of thought. And such reflection needs language (Curruthers 664). The problem is that most animals do not have language, so most animals are not sentient. There are many studies about animal consciousness.Animal welfare has been a trend in modern Western society. There are many policies and laws about animal welfare. Animal welfare is related to animal production, animal reception and animal protection. To improve animal welfare is to improve material productive force, to improve the natural world and to improve human civilization. Generally, the current situation that animals are faced with has enhanced human awareness of animal protection and the widespread laws about animal protection and welfare. More and more countries are advocating the harmonious relationship between human and animals. The former zoologists and biologists have made outstanding achievements for us. There are more good protective measures for wildlife. The future for our nature will be better and better with our effort to make contributions to our world. Furthermore, the civilization will develop toward a harmonious direction. Therefore, this subject is really worth investigating and will prove to be meaningful. In this paper, the author intends to analyze the different connotation of animal in western and Chinese society, and the current situation our protection strategies and policies are in. Though we have taken many measurements to build a more harmonious relationship between human and animals, there is still a long way to go before we can take a breath. The paper consists of three parts besides the introduction and conclusion. Part one is a comparative study of different animals and their different connotations in China and Western culture. Part two deals with the analysis of whether animal has consciousness. Part three compares different treatment to animal in Sino-Western countries.2. Different animals and their different connotations in China and Western cultureConnotation refers to the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its central meaning. These meanings express peoples attitudes or feelings toward what the word or phrase refers to. People from different countries or regions may have different connotative reactions to the word or phrase because of their different social and cultural backgrounds. Take the word dog in English and 狗 (gou) in Chinese for example. Though they can be said to have the same meaning, people from China and English-speaking countries have different attitudes toward the above two words. The following is about to compare English and Chinese cultural connotations in terms of animal words. And the author hopes there will be fewer and fewer communicative problems arising from cultural differences in intercultural communication as long as people from different countries or regions could more and more understand each others culture better.2.1 Same animal and the same connotationAll people have the same instinct to survive. In the progress of survival, we human have much communication with animals, thus making a common understanding to some animals. Therefore, when we speak them in language, they adopt the same meaning or more or less the same. For example, fox has the meaning of cunning in both English and Chinese culture. In Chinese, when we say 他是只老狐狸, we mean he is very cunning. And in English, there is sayings as cunning as a fox and play the fox which have the same meaning with Chinese words. Donkeys are always concerned with silly. In Chinese, we say 笨得像头驴 which means the man is very foolish. And we have a English phrase as stupid as a donkey which has the same connotation with our Chinese saying.There are many other examples, such as hard working bees, lazy pig, and cruel wolf. We have the same connotation of animals in different background because we human have a final goal to live, or some animals have the same characteristics, or we have the same habit.2.2 Same animal and their different connotationsDiversity of different cultures comes from different lifestyle, environment, geography, economy progress, or some other factors. Different cultural backgrounds will induce different meanings to different animals which express different emotions to the creaturesAn animal word may have different image to peoples mind, and we will have different attitudes to the same animal.In the Western world, human give owls the meaning of intelligence and wisdom, and owls plays a role of conductors, sages or judges in the cartoons and tales. Therefore, there is a saying as as wise as an owl in Western culture. However, to our Chinese people, owl is not a good or a ominous symbol, which will possibly bring death or misfortune to us. When we hear the sound of owl, we may think of death. 猫头鹰进宅，好事不来 is a saying of this kind of superstition. However, in English culture, being as wise as an owl indicates that the native English people have a good and wise character like owls. Another example, the sentence He peers owlishly at us through his glasses(他透过眼镜严肃而机智地打量着我们) expresses the sophistication of the man. In China, bat has the meaning of good fortune, happiness and health. The composition of bat and deer(蝠鹿) shares the same pronunciation with good fortune and a promotion in official position(福禄). However, in English culture, bat is an ugly and cruel animal which will bring people with the feeling of darkness and evil things. In Western culture, people say as blind as a bat(有眼无珠) and crazy as a bat(精神失常).The words and phrases we use in our daily life and the different background may cause different things between Chinese and English speaking culture, but they are also closely related. In the former society, we have a good relationship with some animals, but we have bad relationship with most of the wildlife. Now with the continuous development of human civilization, we human should have a better knowledge of nature, and take right measures and attitudes to our wild friends. To be like a family! 3. Analysis of animal consciousnessThe question whether non-human animals are conscious is particularly important. There are many good reasons to support that they are conscious, based on evolutionary continuity and other considerations. However, they are resistant to direct empirical tests. Questions about whether animals are conscious are one corner of a more general set of questions about animal cognition and mind. The so-called “cognitive revolution” that took place during the latter half of the 20th century has led to many new experiments by comparative psychologists and ethologists probing the cognitive capacities of animals. In spite of all these work, the topic of consciousness in animals remains controversial, even taboo, among scientists, even though it remains a matter of common sense to most people that many other animals do have conscious experiences.3.1 Animal behaviorIn 1982, in a gracious circus in Hamburg, one dangerous thing happened. One panther jumped on the stool in the command of famous animal trainer-Rene Strickler when suddenly an accident happened. The paw of the panther carelessly caught one rescue dog which was beside him. The latter took this as attack, and so the dog bit the panthers neck so quickly that no one noticed. At this time, another dog jumped onto the panther, too. And other animals became in a mess, and the animal trainer got into very dangerous situation. But this time, his favorite lioness Pat stood in front of him and protected him until the staff went into the floor and separated the beast with batons and water cannons（Wensley 4）.Everyone will ask after they saw this whether the lioness protected the animal trainer out of instinct or whether she did this because of some clear consciousness.3.2 Whether animals have consciousnessUp to now, it has not reached a consensus for the concept of animal consciousness. In folk psychology, two ordinary senses of consciousness that are not in dispute when applied to animals are the sense of consciousness when a creature is awake, but not asleep or in a coma, and the sense of consciousness related in the basic ability of organisms to understand and then respond to special features of their environments, thus making them clear of those features (Wilkes 223224).A third, Block has introduced a more technical concept of consciousness in which mentality may be used to control action and speach. This explanation of access consciousness is amended by Block to include an occasional aspect in which the content is broadcast in a global workspace which is then used for higher intellectual activities such as reasoning, planning, and a lot of other actions. Block thinks that there are many animals that have access consciousness(Block 162). Indeed, some of the neurological evidence showed by Block in 2005 in support of the global workspace comes from monkeys. But clearly some zoologists who denied speech, language, and rationality to animals would also deny access consciousness to them.There are still two kinds of animal consciousness in dispute: phenomenal consciousness and self-consciousness. Phenomenal consciousness means the qualitative, subjective, experiential, or phenomenological aspects of conscious experience (Block 159-160). To contemplate animal consciousness in this sense is to consider the possibility that, in Nagels phrase, there might be something it is like to be a member of another species. Nagel argues about our ability to know, imagine, or describe objectively what it is like to be a bat, but he assumes that there is something it is like(Nagel 438). There are many who disagree and will challenge his assumption. Nevertheless, many people agree that phenomenal consciousness is more likely possessed by mammals and birds than possessed by invertebrates, such as insects, crustaceans or molluscs (with the possible exception of some cephalopods), while most scientists and philosophers have very little knowledge about the consciousness of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Self-consciousness refers to capacity to realize its own mental states. Because of the ability to think about its own thought, self consciousness is closely concerned with questions about theory of mind in nonhuman animalswhether there are animals capable of transferring mental states to others. Questions about self-consciousness and theory of mind in animals are actively in dispute in science, especially on the questions about chimpanzees and other great apes. As attested by this controversy (and unlike questions about animal sentience) questions about self-consciousness in animals are commonly regarded as tractable by empirical means.Whether animals are conscious is still a controversial issue. Part of the problem lies in the fact that we have not get clear about the relationship between consciousness and brain and no structural basis to judge to problem. Our judgements are just based on the subjective reasoning. There is still a long way before we reach the consensus on whether nonhuman animals are conscious or not. But studies on animal emotion and action have made a great progress. And all of these have made a significant contribution to the balance of nature.4. Different treatment to animals in Sino-Western societyThe existence and development of wildlife help to maintenance the balance and stability of ecosystems. With the development of the world civilization, it has been a great strategic source of human development a