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Originally Posted by Masa Lets put it this way if an animal is afraid of a dungeon it would never go there, but if a human is afraid of a dungeon he can decide to there anyway. |
What about Lassie?
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Humans can control themselves despite instincs but animals are controlled by their instincs. To animals there is just breeding and surviving but to humans there's much more to it.
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Not all animals are the same. This is too big a generalisation about both humans and animals, perhaps?
In the end I do not think it is possible to demonstrate any conclusive difference between humans and animals. Whatever dimensions you pick, there is overlap. For example there are human beings so badly disabled that they demonstrate no discernible intelligence at all. They are still human but in functional terms they are less intelligent than many animals. We have speech, but again there are human beings who do not share that gift. They are still human though they have less capacity to communicate than a cat. I could go on.
I do put humans above animals. I do not pretend that is entirely rational. As with many things we draw our lines where we draw them, and if pushed we cannot completely defend them. Most of us make distinctions within the field of humanity, starting with ourselves as top; then family and friends; perhaps compatriots. Our horizons hopefully grow wider as we mature, and we can care about a bigger range of people and perhaps animals. But I confess I am always partial. " I wish I loved the human race/ I wish I loved its silly face...." I can aspire to it, but so far I cannot achieve it. And the further from me you get the less I truly value you, in the sense that I would not, for example, save you from a burning building if it was a choice between you and my mother.
I am tempted to say that is part of the human condition, and I believe we should try to overcome it so far as we can by making moral choices as honestly as we may. We are lucky in that we seldom have to make very extreme choices and it is possible to offer respect to most people and animals most of the time. In this kind of discussion I do not find it very helpful to consider the worst things that happen as a first move. While exaggeration can be useful in many fields, it is not so helpful here. We need to tease things out a bit more. For example, it was mentioned about using animals in medical research. Well that seems easy, but sadly it is very complicated. If every experiment on every animal was guaranteed to either make sure the drug or whatever was safe for humans; or effective for humans; that would be one thing.That is not true. It might make it more likely, but it is not certain. There are competing values that need serious thought here, not simple positions. At least not for me