Who Am I? And if So, How Many? by Richard David Precht

Author:Richard David Precht [Precht, Richard David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849018876
Publisher: Constable

Fair enough. But the fact that it is impossible to know exactly what goes through the minds of animals does not undermine Singer’s argument. After all, we don’t necessarily know the inner workings of the minds of our fellow humans, either, but that hardly gives us the right to torture them. No court permits torture, murder, and manslaughter on the grounds that the perpetrator could not have known precisely how the victim would feel during the crime. We ascribe a complex state of consciousness to our fellow humans and respect them on that basis alone. When it comes to animals, however, many scientists explain their psyches on purely biological grounds. But models based on observing animals’ response to stimulus are problematic. Do lions’ dominance and submission rituals occur by accident or design? Who can say with any certainty? Human desire is also grounded in satisfying biological needs – avoiding pain, attaining sexual fulfillment – yet we do not reduce the quality of human experience to mere functional mechanisms, so why do so when considering animal experience? It would of course be naïve to project our own feelings and intentions onto animals, but it is equally naïve to regard animals as purely functional machines. How can we dismiss the possibility that the play instinct of animals goes beyond functionality? And although primate sexual activities and the sensations of pleasure they experience can be explained in functional terms, is that the whole story?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.