It's not merely a matter of having a view, it's the quality of the view.
For example, humans examine things in much deeper depth and detail, reference and cross reference it to existing data, abstract it and play with it as a concept or idea, and finally dismiss it at will. Humans can literally formulate ideas at will and combine them with other ideas to solve problems. They can extrapolate on data and make very accurate guesses about a variety of things (some animals can guess the weather, for example, but to them, it is much more an unconscious instinct)
Even though animals can appreciate life, they can never look at things with the same understanding that human does, because humans have such depth, breadth and width of understanding of such diverse sets of knowledge, rational and abstract, creative and intuitive.
For example, they can figure out the solutions to problems, but perhaps after seeing it and failing a few times.
Animals do problem solving unconsciously. It happens, but usually by accident.
Humans have bought problem solving to the fore of their being, evolutionarily. They seek out solutions and are able to grasp and juggle many things in their mind in a way which even apes cannot do. Most of this is down to the superior concentration of human beings. This is bought on by self-awareness.
Humans can make abstract leaps that put them bounds ahead and allows them to solve purely theoretical problems.
As far as I know, no animal can think "purely theoretically", but humans, and neither has any animal need to.
Yet humans have been pursuing "thought" for their evolutionary history, and our minds, bodies and lives reflect that.