(June 11, 2012 at 12:05 am)apophenia Wrote: Is it immoral for me to sneeze, knowing that bacteria will be expelled from a hospitable environment, where they might thrive, into an inhospitable one where they most surely will die?
i have actually written an essay on the topic of the morally considerable and the reason that expelling the bacteria from your self is not immoral rests on two things. These are broken down into subject and act considerations:
-the subject demonstrates absolutely no signs of consciousness and so it would not be logical to assume that the bacteria is worthy of moral consideration. Furthermore there is nothing in it's biological existence that would imply that it can even feel, there is no sign of intelligent or conscious behaviour, no recognisable thought center that would otherwise display that it may be capable of feeling anything. Thus it need not be afforded the right of not being harmed as there is no harm to be done, this applies equally to the accidental killing by sneezing. The bacteria may be seen as the inanimate life, they are not animate as we understand life but simply act towards procreation and respire, this implies no thought process or any other property that would necessitate them being ascribed the status of alive as we would to humans or other animals.
-the act also provides further issue with your example, that we perform an immoral act must first be understood, it is necessary to understand that the act must require intention to be performed in the instant, as crashing my car into another is an immoral act only insofar as it is intended, if I were to crash because I had suffered a heart attack at the wheel I would not be held responsible. Furthermore, as previously explored, we must act as act and omission are not the same. Thus the act of killing the bacteria is thoroughly inescapable, the death of bacteria occurs at every level of human existence and to abstain from killing bacteria is simply impossible as this is a necessary part of human existence, that we move, breathe or even exist results in the death of bacteria and so we may not be logically supposed to avoid the killing of all bacteria as it is inescapable and, as previously stated, the subject is not worthy of moral consideration.
Quote:What is a right? What property of matter imbues a certain collection of matter, say a human, with rights, and not an almost identical collection of matter, say a recently deceased corpse?
That is simple; life. The property of fully functional life, not as a primordial expression of biological function but rather that which the basic biological functions are needed to support, thought. Thought is the fundamental expression of life, it is the greatest function to derive from biological evolution and it is the primary indicator of the value of life itself, not perhaps abstract thought that we possess but rather the simple knowledge that the self exists, the cow, as you posed as example, is aware of it's own existence as a physical and psychic existence and exhibits behaviours that are responsive to pain and other environmental stimuli beyond that which is necessary for survival.
Quote: Why does a man have rights that a cow does not? What is different about the matter forming a man and that forming a cow? result?
A man has no right that a cow does not have, he/she is entitled to the same rights, but perhaps the aptitude of a cow would grant it less in terms of privilege, as the greater reasonal aptitude of man has granted him the privileges of housing and all other of his engineering and technological faculties. The cow, however, has done no such thing and so cannot fully profit from the efforts of man or from itself. Yet the right to freedom from harm and the right to life is still afforded to the cow.
Quote: Why don't mosquitoes have rights?/quote]I don't understand what you mean by this. Please clarify and express it as a more understandable question, what do you mean by 'property'?
Who says that mosquitos don't have rights? They too have the right to live and be protected from harm and so many more that we afford to other animals, including man. Why do you assume I would afford animals different rights?
[quote] Why do I have the right to use my property, even if microbes and worms are killed or inconvenienced as a result
Religion is an attempt to answer the philosophical questions of the unphilosophical man.
