Hello folks,
I've been reading the back mail - seems to be mostly about animal rights
and/or hunting, as usual. Reading in sequence, page after page like a book,
raises some questions for me.
First, it seems to me that the discussions are coming from at least 2 ways
of viewing the world and the place of humans within it. One might be
characterized as "strongly anthropocentric" and the other perhaps as "weakly
anthropocentric". That is to say, that it seems to me that all the
discussion assumes the primacy of humans; that determining how they should
relate with the others (non-humans) depends on the perceptions of how humans
would most be benefited in a particular relationship. One side seems to
value as a measure something like "human pleasure" or "human freedom" and
the other seems to prefer something like "human moral quality" or some such
as a measure.
All this is how I interpret the discussion at the moment; other views would
help my understanding greatly.
Second, it seems to me that there is at least a third way of viewing the
world and thus the value standard by which human action should be judged. I
am thinking that we might shift from anthropocentrism to something like
eco-centrism (which of course incorporates humans as a part of the system).
By that I mean that human action be judged by how that action affects the
welfare of the ecosystem (and/or system of ecosystems). I am not prepared
to define, at the moment, just how ecosystem welfare might be determined,
but it seems to me that conservation biologists have much to say on that
subject. In this context, the effect of human action on a particular animal
or species would be judged by the impact on the welfare of the ecosystem and
not on the specific part of that system.
It seems to me that St. Augustine's dictum should play a role in the process
of evaluating actions: "Act as you desire, so long as you act with love".
(G. Wills, _Saint Augustine_, Lipper/Viking Book, 1999, pp 111+/-)
Do any of you folks see any merit in this? What are the
problems/difficulties? Or is it just senile nonsense? :-)
Sincerely,
Ray
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|