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Caius -> RE: Apes' Rights (7/3/2008 2:39:04 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach
Morally significant Characteristics? Morals are a learned perversion, which change with the context of time and culture.
Yes and no. If there's anything modern cognitive science has taught us, it's the universialty of human nature, including with regard to morals, which, like all other human behaviour, were subject to evolutionary pressures for hundreds of thousands of years before the split of distinctive culture took us in such radically different directions (at least, superficially). And despite the divergence of culture, much of this remains indelibly stamped into the mechanistic nature of our brains.
Now I don't mean to sugges that when you say....
quote:
ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach
What we, as modern 21st century western society consider to be "moral" would have been considered to be extremely Immoral even in our own earlier history, and there are things which we consider to be grossly immoral which were not only considered morally correct but Preferable to various other socieities.
...that this isn't true, as it obviously is, but I think the more accurate way to view the discrepency is that of two different expressions of the same basic nature being displayed in radically different circumstances, the way many evolved human traits can. The fact of the matter is, we share a whole lot more that is, for the most part, in common than attitudes which differ. However, another powerful human trait is that our minds, in most arenas, are designed to focus much more intently on that which is different than that which is shared in common, those things that conform to the patterns we expect (learned or innate), while allowing that which fits the pattern to fade into the background. What is true of visual accuity, is true of auditory decoding, is true of aesthetics, and, yes, is true of our moral selves -- though this seems to be the one area of evolutionary science which people seem most resitant too, even if they otherwise accept evolutionary theory in general.
quote:
ORIGINAL: hizgeorgiapeach
Show me where they are Ethically similar to humans, and this particular point might hold some weight.
Well, that's too tall an order to fill in one sitting here, but if you genuinely want to learn more about what we share in terms of behaviour with our closest animal relatives (or about animal precursors to human behaviour in general), a good start is "The Third Chimpanzee" by Jared Diamond, which, despite the tittle, is not totally preoccupied with primatology but starts out examining the premise that we are essentially a species of the chimp genus. Or you might want to go with a classic: "The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animal," which for me is one of Charles Darwin's most foreward-thinking works, setting the stage for a field of evolutionary psychology that wouldn't again be populated until almost a hundred years after his death.
quote:
ORIGINAL: farglebargle
Since you and I are both Apes, I'd suggest we treat Apes right.
And what Great Apes we are.
Sorry, couldn't resist....
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