La conscience de soi et la reconnaissance de soi

Evidences tend to prove that out of the human being, only the great apes like chimpanzees and orang-utans show self-recognition and have a self-concept. This short note discusses two positions about this issue. First, Gallup uses a mark test with his apes and concludes that they were able of self-directed behavior in presence of a mirror. Second, Heyes thinks that the results of Gallup are the consequence of an anaesthetic recovery and claims self-recognition (so defined) is an artifact of this anaesthetization. This short note tries to analyse this polemic by confronting the different arguments.