The topic title says it all. Of course when we humans think refer to ourselves in thought, we call ourselves I. "I need to pay the bills," "I need coffee," etc. Do you think animals that have a concept of "self" do this, like dolphins, chimpanzees, and orangutans? What about other intelligent animals, like crows, bears, and elephants?

Feel free to branch off into other interesting and relevant questions/topics

Animals don't have language like we do. So of course not.

The intelligent ones may have a concept of self, but they won't refer to themselves as anything in the same way. Sounds representing abstract concepts is a human thing.

I don't think they... well... think. It's instincts. Either that or "I" is the only thing they think about.

"Refer" is the verbal form of "reference" which is a call on something through written, spoken, or implied language.

And animals don't write, speak, or imply anything about themselves. In communication, they can only make demands of each other.

Elephants recognize themselves so I suppose some do in a way...

I mean, for the purpose of playing the devil's advocate, they have to refer to themselves as something if they have a concept of themselves, right? Even it's something as simple as a chimpanzee thinking "I'm hungry," or the chimpanzee's equivalent thought that he has developed as a pondering of the grumbling feeling in his stomach, it has to call itself something. Hell, if dogs can respond to being called by their name, a chimp can sure as hell create a name for itself.

No, not necessarily. They have no concept of language. Language is such a human thing, it's integrated into our very thoughts. Animals have no such connection to it. There's no reason for them to assign objects names, or their actions verbs. They only need to assign vague concepts, like whether something is edible, or what a tool can be used for.

And, as far as I know, dogs don't recognize themselves as being named whatever the owner names them. They just respond to the sound, like they respond to any other command they've learned to recognize.

Nope, and you're making it too complicated. Their brains really don't reach that level of comprehension to begin with. If a chimp's hungry, he just thinks about hunger. He doesn't conceptualize anything like "I am hungry" because that implies a contrast with every other presumably well-fed creature in the universe. And the chimp simply doesn't think about that.

if you can translate an animals thoughts into english... i guess a beetle thinks to himself *i dont want to die* when he tries desprately to escape a spider web. id say animals to refer to themselves, but its WAY below the complexity of humans

No, the beetle thinks "ESCAPE ESCAPE ESCAPE"

I asked my dog this question, he told me I'm an idiot.

The word "Animals" is a very wide category. Maybe some do have a concept of the self, while others do not. But any affirmation or negation of these must be supported with some evidence.

Technically we are animals and we do say I

Yes. Because humans are animals.

Don't be unnecessarily difficult. You know that's what none of us mean.

We can never scientifically know if anything's true or not. But the evidence we have from observing most animalistic behavior is pretty clear.

You know that's not what we're talking about, though.