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If you spend some time on /r/natureismetal you will realize that concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. Animals do w

If you spend some time on /r/natureismetal you will realize that concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. Animals do whatever it takes to survive, and we're no better or worse than them. Eating another animal is completely natural and how the planet works, outside of humanity. Most animals die cruelly and painfully, but that's just a fact of life.

ridgeguy 8y ago
> concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. We can test for a sense of fairness in animals. One test is the "inequity aversion task". Non-humans showing a sense of fairness on this test include dogs [1] and nonhuman primates, ravens and crows [2]. [1] https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30627-9 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)... [2] http://theconversation.com/animals-know-when-they-are-being-treated-unfairly-and-they-dont-like-it-73152 http://theconversation.com/animals-know-when-they-are-being-...
- sizzle 8y ago
  This is a great point thanks for sharing the links.
DanBC 8y ago
> you will realize that concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. Here's the well known capuchin fairness experiment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KSryJXDpZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KSryJXDpZo
- docker_up 8y ago
  I can post a video of an impala giving birth, and then a panther coming moments later and eating the newborn. From a human perspective, this is shocking and incredibly unfair, but the panther doesn't care, it just got its next meal. This is what I mean by "fairness".
checkyoursudo 8y ago
> we're no better or worse than them I think every philosophical or religious system of ethics or morality that I've ever encountered suggests that we are, or can strive to be, better than other animals. What makes you say otherwise? Do you follow a specific set of beliefs or tradition?
- docker_up 8y ago
  I didn't say that we shouldn't strive to be better than animals, but it depends on how far you want to take that. I don't believe I should rip a fetus out of a pregnant woman's belly and eat the fetus for food, like you will often see in nature. However, I have no qualms in eating another animal for sustenance and even for pleasure. I don't think it's abnormal to think that eating other animals is fine.
  - checkyoursudo 8y ago
    Ok, I think I see what you mean. Thanks.
sytelus 8y ago
I believe question isn’t about killing animals for survival but rather doing so for fun/taste. In several Western homes, people even cook lots of meat and throw it away in garbedge (especially around thanksgiving and Christmas). For many people meat is an object, not something that a living thing had to die to produce.

ridgeguy 8y ago

> concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. We can test for a sense of fairness in animals. One test is the "inequity aversion task". Non-humans showing a sense of fairness on this test include dogs [1] and nonhuman primates, ravens and crows [2]. [1] https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30627-9 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)... [2] http://theconversation.com/animals-know-when-they-are-being-treated-unfairly-and-they-dont-like-it-73152 http://theconversation.com/animals-know-when-they-are-being-...

sizzle 8y ago
This is a great point thanks for sharing the links.

DanBC 8y ago

> you will realize that concepts like "fairness" or "caring" simply doesn't exist outside of human brains. Here's the well known capuchin fairness experiment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KSryJXDpZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KSryJXDpZo

docker_up 8y ago
I can post a video of an impala giving birth, and then a panther coming moments later and eating the newborn. From a human perspective, this is shocking and incredibly unfair, but the panther doesn't care, it just got its next meal. This is what I mean by "fairness".

checkyoursudo 8y ago

> we're no better or worse than them I think every philosophical or religious system of ethics or morality that I've ever encountered suggests that we are, or can strive to be, better than other animals. What makes you say otherwise? Do you follow a specific set of beliefs or tradition?

docker_up 8y ago
I didn't say that we shouldn't strive to be better than animals, but it depends on how far you want to take that. I don't believe I should rip a fetus out of a pregnant woman's belly and eat the fetus for food, like you will often see in nature. However, I have no qualms in eating another animal for sustenance and even for pleasure. I don't think it's abnormal to think that eating other animals is fine.
- checkyoursudo 8y ago
  Ok, I think I see what you mean. Thanks.

sytelus 8y ago

I believe question isn’t about killing animals for survival but rather doing so for fun/taste. In several Western homes, people even cook lots of meat and throw it away in garbedge (especially around thanksgiving and Christmas). For many people meat is an object, not something that a living thing had to die to produce.