On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, Ronald Ferruci wrote:
> We would like to believe that they don't
> think and that we are better than them because they don't because
> that places us above they and allows us the right to decide which
> ones live or die. What makes us different is that we think that we
> are better than then and in doing so have brought many of the other
> animal species of the world, either to or over the brink of
> extinction. And we are dragging ourselves over that edge too.
>>I don't see much evidence that animals are capable of, say, building
>>hydroelectric dams or composing symphonies. That we are capable of
>>overpowering the rest of the animal kingdom despite the fact that,
>>physically speaking, we are ill-equipped to do so, suggests to me that
>>the human "animal" is by far the most intelligent on the planet.
>>Does this give us the right to do to with other species as we will? The
>>answer to that question depends on what standards you're using to decide
>>things like "rights".
>>As for pushing ourselves to the brink of exinction, this may be something
>>to be concerned about. However, I think that such possibilites as
>>wide-scale famine and disease in the third world present a far greater
>>danger than extinction at this point -- unless the threat of global
>>nuclear war becomes a concern again.
I didn't say that animals are more intelligent than us, but that we
can't prove that they don't think. Maybe they can't build a
hydroelectric dam or write a symphony because they are incorrect
anatomically for it. Only a few other species besides us have an
opposable thumb that would allow that. And maybe they don't have the
intelligence to do what you say (although i would hardly call a
hydroelectric dam a work of intelligence) but that doesn't mean that
they can't think. We have found that animals can learn, and they can
use technology (low technology, but it's still technology). And
gorillas have been able to learn sign language.
But just because we may be more intelligent than them (some of us
may be, some i quite suspect) doesn't give us the right to exploit
them. If we're going to decide or exploitable rights on who we are
more intelligent then, whats to stop us from exploiting little
children, old people, the brain dead, people in comas, retarded
people, and so on. If we base our rights to exploit on intelligence,
what about those with extremly low iqs or those that i have
mentioned, many of these people are of lower intelligence than many
animals. And i have come accross people on my own campus (normal
people) who i suspect may be dumber than my dog.
Ron Ferrucci.