> Chris P wrote...
>
> >Does reason say hunters ought not kill?
To which Bryan responds:
> Well, I think that this is in part the topic of the present debate. I
lean
> towards the perspective that hunters ought not kill, and I find the
debate
> to be a good one.
If a hunter ought not to kill, is then the hunter no longer a hunter but a
gatherer? Of course HS should not kill, based on compassion and ex
definitiones insights of reason [ all sentient beings suffer]. The question
though with regard to ethics and hunting is not whether hunters ought not
to kill, but whether or not they must not kill. There must be by some
reason an obligation, not simply a relative moral reason, system of
reasoning, science, etc., which is convincing to the hunter to restrain his
or her hunting passions. Bad hunters are those that proceed from intuition
to intuition and may no inferences about their impacts on the animal in
terms of suffering and to the ecosystem. The way out is clear.
Hunting is part of the natural evolution of predators and prey.
Axiom: On small islands where prey are not adapted to predators, there is
risk of the meta-population being exterminated as a result of
over-exploitation, luxury consumption, wasteful consumption, etc., by a
predator newly arrived to the island, i.e. HS [Homo sapien].
Lemma: Since an individual prey is part of the evolutionary complex within
a spatial-temporal whole [holon], then it follows that predation is
required to maintain some evolutionary fitness in any case for the species.
Corrollary: Some hunting by HS is acceptable on the basis that HS is a
sentient being like all species. Those species which are hunted by HS
benefit where there are no natural predators, and humans gain respect for
prey, and ecosystem benefits associated with prey. In short, there is every
reason to hunt, there is every reason to not hunt, but on balance then,
suffering must be reduced where, when and if possible since animals suffer
when hunted.
John Foster
"After the world was created in 7 days, God was asked which of his gifts
was most important. The economists said that THEY were God's gift to the
world. The biologists on the other hand said that ECOSYSTEMS where God's
gift to the world."
"Challenge dependency and depletion"
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