RE: Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?
February 21, 2014 at 3:35 pm
(This post was last modified: February 21, 2014 at 3:35 pm by bennyboy.)
(February 21, 2014 at 12:19 pm)rasetsu Wrote:I don't doubt that an interest in species and ideas about evolution are the basis for your system of ethics. I just don't believe these ideas are the right ones to choose. There is very much about our species that causes immoral behavior-- in fact, I'd argue that it is our ability to reign in obsolete evolutionary behaviors that constitutes the basis of morality.
You keep forgetting two things.
a) Since my ethics is based on evolutionary principles, counter-claims are a matter of basic survival.
b) Since my ethics operates at the species level, it can't be used to support gender or race distinctions directly.
Your appeals continually violate these two basic facts.
Quote:I would agree that we should eliminate unnecessary animal suffering if it doesn't result in a drain on our survival. But if being altruistic involves sacrificing the goals of humans for the sake of animals, then your altruism is irrational. Altruism evolved to serve species goals, and when you take it outside of that, you are costing lives.I don't think what you're saying about evolution is how evolution is correctly viewed. There's no goal, either of the species or of evolution. Stuff has happened, and so we are the way we are.
Nor is giving up meat really an act of altruism. It doesn't throw the self into jeopardy, leaving evolutionists to wonder why an organism would act in a way clearly contrary to its individual genetic fitness. Yes, there's some sacrifice involved, in that meat is yummy and someone doesn't get to enjoy its yumminess. But this is irrelevant to the genetic fitness of the species or of individual humans.
Quote:However, vegetarianism is a case of looking for an ethical principle to use to justify an ideological position, and holding fast to that rationalization in spite of the consequences.I have used the word "moral" exclusively in this thread, and I think you are the first in this thread to refer to ethics. Is this semantic difference deliberate, and if so, what is you intent in differentiating?
