Eternal Self
An animal without a self cannot simply decide to behave contrary to its natural inclinations. A goose could not decide, in a conscious and deliberate fashion, to fly north instead of south for the winter. A stallion could decide to not pass up the opportunity to mate with a sexually receptive mare. You, on the other hand, can truly decide whether to go north or south on vacation and whether or not to respond to someone hitting on you. This is not to say animals that lack a self never do things atypical for their species, they do. Such behaviors are the result of idiosyncratic patterns of physiology, experience and environment and not a self directed decision.
Mark Leary
The Curse of the Self
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