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Re: Just for the record... » so

Posted by alexandra_k on May 22, 2005, at 3:01:23

In reply to Re: Just for the record..., posted by so on May 22, 2005, at 0:24:48

Just for the record...

I never said that animals weren't sentient.
That was Descartes.
It is a silly view.

But at least Descartes was consistent...
That was my thought there. Descartes thought it was okay to kill them because they didn't have interests, and thus we didn't have to take their interests into account.

Whereas...
If you say that animals are sentient
That they have goals
They have things they want to do
They have an interest in staying alive
The more you see that they have goals JUST LIKE US
The more it seems a little strange
That you can believe
That it is perfectly fine
Perfectly acceptable
To completely override their interests - their great interest in survival
In favour of the comparatively trivial interest that human beings have in having 'a little fun'.

Do you understand my point?????

The notion is that we should treat people as ends in themselves. People have goals and plans and it is thought to be wrong to manipulate or make people do just what we want them to do with no consideration for them having autonomy and being allowed to persue goals that are different from ours.

People are ends in themselves (they have their own goals).
They are not merely means to our ends (to be manipulated for our own goals).

But if animals are sentient...
If animals have their own goals...

Then how is it that we can override their interest in survival to treat them as a mere means to our goal of having a little fun?

I do not understand.

 

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poster:alexandra_k thread:498173
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050509/msgs/501074.html