Interestingly Descartes argued that animals are not conscious in part due to the theological questions it raises about animal suffering and other matters. His solution was that animals are simply automatons, machines. Some real parallels
🔐 “I thought it was significant that the Pope’s comments relate to the ontological question of personhood. It is not obvious that consciousness is an especially important category for Christian theology of personhood. After all, angels and ants are both conscious.”
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Somewhat interesting that he was partly also one of the first people taking physics to its natural conclusion. He saw basic hydraulic machines and came to the conclusion that living beings functioned similarly, but partitioned humans out as special and beyond that