When Animals Dream

The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness

Author: David M. Peña-Guzmán

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Description

A spellbinding look at the philosophical and moral implications of animal dreaming.

Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream brings together behavioural and neuroscientific research on animal sleep with philosophical theories of dreaming. It shows that dreams provide an invaluable window into the cognitive and emotional lives of nonhuman animals, giving us access to a seemingly inaccessible realm of animal experience.

David Pea-Guzmn uncovers evidence of animal dreaming throughout the scientific literature, suggesting that many animals run "reality simulations" while asleep, with a dream-ego moving through a dynamic and coherent dreamscape. He builds a convincing case for animals as conscious beings and examines the thorny scientific, philosophical, and ethical questions it raises. Once we accept that animals dream, we incur a host of moral obligations and have no choice but to rethink our views about who animals are and the interior lives they lead.

A mesmerising journey into the otherworldly domain of nonhuman consciousness, When Animals Dream carries profound implications for contemporary debates about animal cognition, animal ethics, and animal rights, challenging us to regard animals as beings who matter, and for whom things matter.

'When Animals Dream ranges from fascinating to thrilling. A very accessible, penetrating, thought-provoking book that makes us see other-than-human minds in a whole new light.' - Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel and Becoming Wild

'Octopuses dream. Rats suffer nightmares. Chimps trained in sign language 'talk' in their sleep. This revelatory book shows us that animals' minds, like ours, are gloriously nimble, vivid, and complex, even during sleep. This is thrilling, essential reading for all of us seeking to expand our understanding of the wonder of consciousness.' - Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

Critic Reviews

"Winner of the PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers"
"I can recommend [this book] to anyone who cares about animals."---Barbara J. King, Times Literary Supplement
"An intellectual tour de force . . . . this book will change minds."---Simon Ings, New Scientist
"[An] intriguing book. . . . Scientists have always speculated about the inner worlds of animals; Peña-Guzmán offers a novel, and poetic, way in."---Camille Bromley, The Atlantic
"Amiable, lucid, and concise. . . . Peña-Guzmán addresses his own conjectures with a winning frankness."---Laura Miller, Slate
"When Animals Dream is a fascinating, challenging, and thought-provoking book that gives human exceptionalism a philosophically-grounded middle finger."---Leon Vlieger, Inquisitive Biologist
"Recommended."---J. A. Mather, Choice
"Thought-provoking. . . .Fluid, nicely-paced read, with a lovely mixture of anecdote, analysis and speculation."---Jonathan Shock, Mathemafrica 

About the Author

David M. Pea-Guzmn is associate professor of humanities and liberal studies at San Francisco State University. He specializes in critical animal studies, the history and philosophy of science, and contemporary European philosophy. He is a coauthor of Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers' Brief and cohost of the popular Overthink podcast.