[taneq]

Thought experiment: Dogs tend to act guilty when they know they've done something wrong. If you get two dogs together, and one does something naughty, do both act guilty afterwards or only one? If only one, then is it not reasonable to assume that the guilty dog has internally models the situation as "I did bad thing, I am bad dog" but the other dog internally models the situation as "I didn't do bad thing, I am good dog"?

I'm not saying dogs sit around quoting Kant, but they're highly social animals and I find it hard to believe they don't have some internal representation of themselves.

[nerdo]

Dogs act guilty in response to being scolded, not because they know they've done something wrong.

[PhasmaFelis]

No, we could always tell when my dog had gotten into something even before we found the evidence, because she'd be slinking around embodying the word "hangdog" from the moment we walked in the door. There's debate over whether this is actually guilt or simply anticipation of punishment, but there's no question that dogs know when they've done something they weren't supposed to do.

[snowwrestler]

And how to do humans learn which things are wrong? Kids are scolded fairly frequently when they're young...