Descartes's Dog

Animals feel pain – so much is obvious. But René Descartes didn't think so. In fact, the man who has been called the Father of Modern Philosophy thought there was no more to the yelps and cries of a suffering animal than the squeaks and groans of an unoiled hinge, and (for the purposes of science) he was even rumoured to have dissected living dogs and nailed cats to trees. For, he reasoned, we wou...