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This is a great article. > "The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." I think de
by foxhop 9y ago
This is a great article.
> "The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind."
I think deep down we all inherently know this. This is largely why I try my best (although it is difficult) to eat mostly vegetarian. I think if it were a matter of survival killing and eating is natural, however what we do with live stock and factory farming is obviously unethical.
It's hard to watch footage of the process, from birth, life, and ultimate death of animals in captivity. It reminds me of a video game I played called "Prey" (great game, worth playing even today).
A recent film that strikes this chord but misses the chance to drive it home is "Arrival" (2016). Another recent film is "Bladerunner 2049" (looking at the farming practices of both protein and replicants)
There are countless documentaries on Netflix (and likely other services) regarding factory farming animals which are worth watching. They certainly helped clear some of my own ideological barriers.
- jlos 9y agoIf the difference is of degree, could the degree be discrete rather than continuous? What I mean is that is that of the shared faculties between higher animals and humans, such as language, it does not appear as if increasing animal capacity by some factor would yield near human capacity. Instead, it seems that animals and human operate in different, discrete, levels of using a faculty. Using language again, and I'm going to have to dig through my magazines to find the book reference, but recent research by Noam Chomsky into animal language reveals that it is fundamentally different than human language. Human language is non-linear and recursive, that is, words can have antecedents and self-referential clausal structures, whereas animal language is all linear; the current sound is always in direct relation to the previous sound. Moving from even highly developed animal language to human language, then, is not simply a continuous increase but a discrete one. Not disagreeing with you here, just trying to nuance the point that to suggest that rather than seeing humans as fundamentally similar to animals and on a higher continuum, that we are fundamentally similar to animals and yet at a discretely higher level not achievable by increasing any given factor of those animals' faculties.
- simonh 9y agoFair points, but does it follow that because human communication is significantly different from animal communication, that therefore all other aspects of the human experience must be equally remote from those of animals? I think that’s an inference too far. The parts of our brain responsible for language are quite different from those of animals, but the parts of our brains responsible for body image, sight, hearing, locomotion and emotional experience are pretty unremarkable compared to other higher mammals. Therefore it seems likely that our experience of those things is unremarkable too, at least when it comes to mammals. It’s just that we can talk about it, and they can’t
- foxhop 9y agoYes, and some animals "think" in even more remarkable ways then humans, for instance the octopus can "think" and "see" with each of it's arms. We fundamentally cannot comprehend how to think or see with our skin. That makes life on this planet even more amazing. So much to learn about life.
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoPhilosophically I envy animals bred for food. These animals have an objective "purpose" to their lives: provide themselves as food for humans. That's a lot more of a clear cut, virtuous vector to their lives than any human could ever wish to have.
- zumu 9y ago> factory farming is obviously unethical. This really depends on your moral principles. Ethics is a entire branch of philosophy, and in the realm of philosophy, nothing is 'obvious'.