More than two decades ago, Donald Griffin's The Question of Animal
Awareness permitted studies of animal mentality to come out of
the closet. But despite two decades of discussion the question of
just how much we can know about the minds of nonhuman animals remains
mired in controversy. To philosophers and scientists alike, the
deepest challenge remains that of understanding the nature of animal
consciousness -- if there be any such thing. I'll explore the
borderline between asking what it's like to be a bat, and
asking whether it's like anything to be a bat. While the
former question has captured the imagination of scientists and
philosophers alike, I'll attempt to show how the latter question
provides a more tractable starting point for our attempts to
understand the evolution of consciousness.