things of a physicalor material nature. Human beings are
conscious,andconsciousnesscannothaveitsorigininmatter.
Descartes identified consciousness with the immortal soul,
whichsurvivesthedecompositionofthephysicalbody,and
assertedthatthesoulwasspeciallycreatedbyGod.Ofall
material beings, Descartessaid,only humanbeings havea
soul.(Angelsandotherimmaterialbeingshaveconsciousness
and nothing else.)
Thusin thephilosophy of DescartestheChristiandoctrine
thatanimalsdonothaveimmortalsoulshastheextraordinary
consequencethattheydonothaveconsciousnesseither.They
are, he said, mere machines, automata. They experience
neitherpleasure norpain,nor anythingelse.Although they
maysquealwhencutwithaknife,orwritheintheireffortsto
escapecontactwithahotiron,thisdoesnot,Descartessaid,
mean that they feel pain in these situations. They are
governed by the same principles as a clock, and if their
actionsaremorecomplexthanthoseofaclock,itisbecause
theclockisamachinemadebyhumans,whileanimalsare
infinitely more complex machines, made by God.^24
This“solution”oftheproblemoflocatingconsciousnessina
materialisticworldseemsparadoxicaltous,asitdidtomany
of Descartes’s contemporaries, but atthe time it wasalso
thoughttohaveimportantadvantages.Itprovidedareasonfor
believing in a life after death, something which Descartes
thought“ofgreatimportance”since“theideathatthesoulsof
animalsareofthesamenatureasourown,andthatwehave
nomoretofearortohopeforafterthislifethanhavetheflies
and ants” was an error that was apt to lead to immoral
conduct.Italsoeliminatedtheancientandvexingtheological
puzzleofwhyajustGodwouldallowanimals—whoneither