Writing about consciousness, the psychologist William James29 had a similar instinct. We understand nothing of a dog’s experience: of ‘the rapture of bones under hedges, or smells of trees and lamp-posts’. They understand nothing of ours, when for example they watch us stare interminably at the pages of a book. Yet both states of consciousness share a certain quality: the ‘zest’ or ‘tingle’ which comes when one is completely absorbed in what one is doing. This tingle should enable us to recognise each other’s similarity even when the objects of our interest are different. Recognition, in turn,
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