Sunday, January 8, 2012
Chapter 3: Words/ Meaning
What do I consider myself? I am a person, a daughter, a friend, a sister, a cousin, and a human. Am I an animal? While reading chapter three words/meaning, of Eating Animals I came across a thought provoking conundrum. “In the first sense, humans are members of the animal kingdom. But more often, we casually use the word animal to signify all creatures-from orangutan to dog to shrimp- except humans. Within a culture, even within a family, people have their own understandings of what an animal is. Within each of us there are probably several different understandings.” (45) I believe in evolution. I believe that we evolved from primates. When I think of primates I imagine gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. I would consider all of those primates animals. If we evolved from them and they are animals, why don’t I think I am one? When I think of animals I think of the zoo, the aquarium, pets, and creatures I see on a daily basis. I would say that I consider an animal as a creature without speech. But then I realize that plenty of the creatures that I consider animals have means of speech. Dolphins, whales, and many other animals have distinguished ways of communication. So then I thought that animals are creatures that are “wild”. But I could not find justification in that. Animals have specific characteristics because natural selection selected those traits for survival. They are not acting wild. They are acting in a way that ensures survival. Isn’t that what humans do? Humans give money great importance. Having money insures that one can provide shelter, food and water. That is all we need to survive. Our obsession with money has extended past basic necessity to a craving for luxury items. Maybe this is why we consider ourselves different from animals. Animals do what they need to survive. We do what we need to survive and what makes us happy. Do we think that going above and beyond what we need makes us more civilized? I would argue it makes us more primitive because we are forgetting our basic instincts of survival for instincts of greed and envy. For anyone who reads this…do you consider yourself an animal or something else?
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I think the idea of having more than you need is something that differentiates humans from other animals, like you said. By the way humans are considered primates, and humans and other primates are thought to all be evolved from a common ancestor. I don't think humans act wild because humans are past the point where every action is taken to ensure survival, and at a certain point you have enough money to survive. Do you think humans really have forgotten their instincts for survival if the average life span of a human is increasing?
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that humans have lost their instincts for survival. We are fund research for medicine, cures, and treatment. We try to surpass basic survival. We treat our ill and seek fixes for treatment we don’t have yet. We are extremely focused on survival. But we also have focuses on miscellaneous items that other creatures do not. This is what I think distinguishes us from other animals. I think it makes us more primitive because we are taking away attention from survival and placing it in luxury items. If we were focused solely on survival it is possible that we would have more medical advances and less human induced diseases such as obesity.
ReplyDeleteI think the main entity that differentiates humans from animals is that humans have money and animals don't. While money is used to buy things that we need, it is also used to buy things that we dont necessarily need and just want. By obviously not having this luxury, animals spend their lives only fighting for things that they need and usually living with the bare minimum because that is all they know. I agree that humans are extremely focused on survival, but I don't think that luxury items are taking away from that focus. As Julie said, the average life span of a human is increasing which just goes to show that no matter how many luxuries humans can obtain, the work for survival will always prevail.
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