Law360, New York (January 5, 2016, 11:19 AM EST) -- Nearly 400 years ago, French philosopher Rene Descartes and his protégés did things that would be unthinkable in modern America. They repeatedly nailed living animals, such as dogs, to a board and scalded them or cut them open to expose their beating hearts. In Descartes's view, the writhing animal was reacting in a way that looked like it was in pain, but it was not actually experiencing pain because it was merely an animal. Descartes believed that animals did not have souls and were incapable of suffering actual pain. Laconically summarizing his view on the matter, Descartes explained "the greatest of all the prejudices we have retained from infancy is that of believing that brutes think."...