(September 27, 2013 at 12:50 pm)gall Wrote: We might consume animals but mentally that does not make us animals. I am not talking about genetics either here.
I see many in our race seeking knowledge and not perpetuating ignorance. One must start someplace to grow and I see us doing just that even if slowly. We would not be here discussing this on this electronic computerized forum right now if people had prescribed to what you wrote here.
Don't you hate it when people react to one part of what you've written when it is not even your chief point? That's what I'm doing. I actually think it is essential to remember that we are animals with mammalian brains. Fairly recently our species developed the capacity for using symbolic language and engaging in discursive thought. That makes our mental lives very different than every other animal on the planet so far as we can tell. But the original poster is getting at something when he describes us as "A vicious beast with a vicious nature and to call ourselves righteous is to call the sky the ground. "
Personally I think that is unduly slanted and pessimistic. He is right that we are beasts. However there is also a kind of nobility to beasts, even for carnivores. I wouldn't be as quick to condemn animal nature. Regardless, whatever it is that motivates other animals also animates us. Discursive thought gives us the capacity to consider things abstractly but it never takes away that which motivates our choices. We certainly are animals, just very weird ones. (Aren't you glad to be this kind of weird?)
