Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Humans and Animals

ratbastid · 10-05-2003, 10:35 AM

But surely you're not saying that we Human Animals are devoid of instinct? I don't believe that in the least.

We have an instinct to protect ourselves from harm. We have an instict to reject that which is different from us. We have an instict to be suspicious of strangers.

One of the things that is mankind's greatest triumph is the ablility NOT to operate from instinct. But you better believe we have 'em.

So it's a cop-out (IMO) to say "An animal can't be cruel because it's operating on instinct. Only a human can be cruel."

NOW. That said. I think cruelty is a subjective thing. I observe Nazi concentration camps and I consider them cruel. To the nazi who designed them, they were practical, maybe even beautiful, in their way. I reserve the right to judge what's cruel and what's not (I mean.. you know, I'll be judging anyway, so why not reserve the right!).

There are a million questions like this that begin from a position of assuming that such a thing as Cruelty (for instance) exists in the world as a fact, or an outside property of people or things, when in fact, there IS no such thing as cruelty. There is only our ASSESSMENT of cruelty, or our STORY of cruelty.

10-05-2003, 10:35 AM	#6 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	But surely you're not saying that we Human Animals are devoid of instinct? I don't believe that in the least. We have an instinct to protect ourselves from harm. We have an instict to reject that which is different from us. We have an instict to be suspicious of strangers. One of the things that is mankind's greatest triumph is the ablility NOT to operate from instinct. But you better believe we have 'em. So it's a cop-out (IMO) to say "An animal can't be cruel because it's operating on instinct. Only a human can be cruel." NOW. That said. I think cruelty is a subjective thing. I observe Nazi concentration camps and I consider them cruel. To the nazi who designed them, they were practical, maybe even beautiful, in their way. I reserve the right to judge what's cruel and what's not (I mean.. you know, I'll be judging anyway, so why not reserve the right!). There are a million questions like this that begin from a position of assuming that such a thing as Cruelty (for instance) exists in the world as a fact, or an outside property of people or things, when in fact, there IS no such thing as cruelty. There is only our ASSESSMENT of cruelty, or our STORY of cruelty.