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MOSCOW, June 10. Director of the Institute for Advanced Brain Research, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, neurophysiologist Konstantin Anokhin believes that the time has come to highlight a new science – about consciousness, and not only in people. He expressed this opinion in an interview.
Academician Anokhin acted as the scientific organizer of the First International Conference “Animal Consciousness” with the participation of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in northern India in May 2023. And in May of this year, together with the Moscow Foundation for Promoting Humane and Responsible Treatment of Animals “Cat of the Wind”, he gathered in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, the Second International Forum “How to study and understand the consciousness of non-humans” with the participation of dozens of leading experts in this field from all over world.
“The goal is to advance, through a series of such conferences, the process of developing a holistic science of consciousness not only in humans. Currently, scientists who study issues related to consciousness, subjective experience, emotions, pain, behavior, learning and memory in animals are all in different scientific communities. Some are zoologists conducting field research, others are ecologists, others are laboratory scientists, others are philosophers, others study consciousness only in humans, others are psychologists conducting research on consciousness in a comparative evolutionary aspect, others work with agricultural and domestic animals, and so on. They all go to their conferences and now still know little about each other’s research. Their interaction could greatly fertilize this entire new field of science,” Anokhin said.
So, he added, another goal is “to launch a program of regular conferences every two years that will begin to bring together this scientific community.”
“Yes, the science of consciousness in the broadest sense, covering not only us, people. And this is not about the classification of the Higher Attestation Commission, but about the essence of this phenomenon in our world,” Anokhin explained in response to a clarifying question whether he wants to offer highlight a separate new science of consciousness.
Among the goals of the forum on animal consciousness, the academician also named the uniting of scientific experts into working groups to discuss the most pressing and unresolved issues in this area, compiling reports on the state and prospects for the development of each issue, publishing a monograph that could be read by other researchers and all interested faces.
“And lastly, there is already a journal Animal sentience. Based on the research that has been and will be presented at our conferences, it will be possible to create a detailed encyclopedia about the consciousness of animals,” the agency's interlocutor believes.
Read the full text of the interview with Konstantin Anokhin >>
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