 This uncertainty arises in part from a lack of clarity and consensus about what would count as adequate evidence of self- and other-awareness and practical rationality. To resolve that question, it is necessary to confront not only interpretive ambiguities in making inferences about the content of other minds, but conceptual issues about what it means to possess critical cognitive functions. Similar issues are raised in the debate about animal consciousness (see the Entry on  animal consciousness),  but there is also disagreement about whether the kinds of evidence adduced for and against the cognitive capacities of animals are equally relevant in assessing the cognitive capacities of human beings (Kittay 2005; McMahan 2002, 2005, 2008).