Comments - The effects of categorisation as food - Animal Rights Zone2024-03-29T13:33:34Zhttp://arzone.ning.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=4715978%3ABlogPost%3A83414&xn_auth=noA cognitive system can kill e…tag:arzone.ning.com,2012-02-18:4715978:Comment:834442012-02-18T05:14:19.159ZGeorge Milerhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/GeorgeMiler
<p>A cognitive system can kill empathy. Unique to each culture, it includes all the unconscious classifications, judgments, and values which trigger most of an adult's initial responses to situations, including the assignment of affective valencies. The revival of Greek learning in the Renaissance made it possible to separate matter from spirit. Moreover, the Manichean tendencies of Calvinism made the material universe hostile from which human beings had to wrest a living. Not even Lovejoy’s…</p>
<p>A cognitive system can kill empathy. Unique to each culture, it includes all the unconscious classifications, judgments, and values which trigger most of an adult's initial responses to situations, including the assignment of affective valencies. The revival of Greek learning in the Renaissance made it possible to separate matter from spirit. Moreover, the Manichean tendencies of Calvinism made the material universe hostile from which human beings had to wrest a living. Not even Lovejoy’s Great Chain of Being spared the natural world; animals were assigned a lower rank in the moral order. And science (at its most reductionistic) had no qualms about vivisection. In the 60s even human beings were regarded as machines to be manipulated by wires inserted in their pleasure centers, or controlled through the behavioral techniques of B. F. Skinner. Dr. Steve Best has updated this history with new terms of discourse.</p> Thanks for posting this, Olly…tag:arzone.ning.com,2012-02-17:4715978:Comment:831682012-02-17T03:59:23.279ZCarolyn Baileyhttp://arzone.ning.com/profile/CarolynBailey
<p>Thanks for posting this, Olly. It's really very interesting. <br></br><br></br>I absolutely agree with your suggestion of using terms like "individuals" when speaking about other animals. I use "individuals" all the time, I think it's an accurate term, but I also think it encourages others to think, and hopefully put some thought to the fact that all beings really are individuals.</p>
<p>I had a discussion with a man in a forum site a few months ago, and he absolutely refused to refer to other…</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this, Olly. It's really very interesting. <br/><br/>I absolutely agree with your suggestion of using terms like "individuals" when speaking about other animals. I use "individuals" all the time, I think it's an accurate term, but I also think it encourages others to think, and hopefully put some thought to the fact that all beings really are individuals.</p>
<p>I had a discussion with a man in a forum site a few months ago, and he absolutely refused to refer to other animals as individuals. This went on for a number of days, and, although he wasn't able to give a rational reason as to why a cow (for example) was not an individual, he insisted that she was not. I expect it is something that many people would feel similarly about, perhaps because it would entail them challenging their beliefs and choices. Something that far too few people are prepared to do. </p>
<p><br/> </p>