&gt;Do animals have mental states?<p>beside being just a religious dogma of &quot;only humans have soul&quot; in disguise, answering &quot;No&quot; would mean that the one can suggest a specific plausible place in a continuous chain of living organisms from any human back to first cell (or just to say first mammals) where the &quot;soul&quot; (&quot;mental states&quot;) supposedly magically appeared. I mean did Neanderthals had soul? Did Australopithecus? Did the apes 2M years ago?