To start, you have to define "feelings", which is a hard task in itself. And then, since you can't ask the fish what it feels (well, you can, but you'll be pretty lucky to get a response), you have to try to figure out whether its actions are due to feelings. Is fleeing from things that are dangerous the same as fear? Is aggression the same as anger? Is courtship the same as love? These sorts of responses to stimuli can be imitated by simple computer programs; can these programs be said to have feelings?
It's a very complicated question, and one that I don't know how to approach. But my guess is that fish, if they can be said to have "feelings", certainly don't have them in the same way that, for example, dogs, whales, or primates do. And I doubt they think about their feelings, and talk about them, and write poems about them, and go on killing sprees over them, the way humans do.
It's a very complicated question, and one that I don't know how to approach. But my guess is that fish, if they can be said to have "feelings", certainly don't have them in the same way that, for example, dogs, whales, or primates do. And I doubt they think about their feelings, and talk about them, and write poems about them, and go on killing sprees over them, the way humans do.
That's probably best.