An Enquiry into the Links Between Episodic Memory and Empathy in Non-Human Animals

在上个世纪，对动物意识的研究一直遵循摩根的准则，该准则指导研究人员倾向于对动物思维的简单解释，而不是复杂的解释，但由于它植根于关于物理还原论和简单性的经验上不合理的理论假设，当代研究因此在智力上停滞不前。如果不加以制止，它将继续如此。我的研究目的是主张采用我的“最小伤害原则”作为替代方案，该原则要求研究人员在评估相互竞争的解释时要认真，如果他们得出错误的结论，他们无法收回他们的结论对动物造成的后果，因为动物有意识地意识到自己的痛苦，有能力生动地回忆痛苦，并有能力分担他人的痛苦。我的博士项目分为两个部分：第一部分目前正在进行，是对摩根的经典进行批判并提供一个新的替代方案，第二部分是证明如何利用这个替代原则在研究动物的情景记忆和同理心的有意识方面取得进展，这是我即将进行的两年博士研究。

For the last century, research into animal consciousness has adhered to Morgan's Canon, which guides researchers in favouring simple explanations of animal minds over complex ones, but due to it being rooted in empirically unjustified theoretical assumptions about physical reductionism and simplicity, contemporary research has become intellectually stagnated as a result. Left unchecked it will remain so. My research aim is to argue for the adoption of my Minimum Harm Principle as an alternative, which requires that researchers be conscientious when evaluating competing explanations that if they conclude incorrectly, they cannot take back the consequences that their conclusions will have for animals that are consciously aware of their suffering, have the capacity to vividly recall suffering, and the capacity to share in the suffering of others. My PhD project is divided into two sections: the first currently underway is to critique and offer a new alternative to Morgan's Canon, and the second is to evidence how this alternative principle can be used to make progress in researching the conscious aspects of Episodic Memory and Empathy in animals, which the upcoming two years of my PhD will investigate.