In a classical article from 1974, the American philosopher Thomas Nagel shows that we need to take consciousness into account if we are to understand the point of view of another species.

Nagel argues that that materialist theories of mind omit the essential component of thinking that there is something that it is (or feels) like to be a particular conscious thing.

An organism has conscious mental states, he argues, “if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism.” Nagel’s example has been called “The most widely cited and influential thought experiment about consciousness”.

Here is the whole article.