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Despite centuries of investigation by everyone from natural historians, psychologists, and psychiatrists, to ethicists, neuroscientists, and philosophers, there is still no universal definition of emotion or consciousness. As I mentioned earlier, a number of researchers have agreed that animals share the capacity for the emotions of fear and enjoyment. It's highly likely, however, as the neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp suggests, that animals experience many more than these. What, for example, is the bee emotion associated with seeing a particularly pleasing ultraviolet pattern inside a flower? What does the dolphin emotion for sensing a sonar ping from a long-lost companion feel like? The octopus emotion associated with performing a sudden, flushing change of skin color? Other animals have different physiological experiences than we do and those may come with their own emotional experiences. Because of this, it's difficult to make a finite list. There isn't consensus even on the universal human emotions. The psychologist Paul Ekman put forth the most famous list of what he called "basic" human emotions: anger, fear, sadness, enjoyment, disgust, and surprise. But what about excitement, shame, awe, relief, jealousy, love, or joy? Attempting to reduce all of these complex states to a grocery list of experiences may be beside the point, especially since we know how useful they can be.
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Laurel Braitman (Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves)