Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Human/Nonhuman Animals

I think the main difference between human animals and non human animals is a higher level of thinking. Human animals have everyday necessities figured out like; food, shelter, and maintaining a healthy life style. Human animals have these basics mastered allowing them to explore higher levels of thinking like art, fashion, material possessions, and hobbies. While exploring these fields we gain knowledge no other animals have obtained like language and arts. This is a major distinction between human animals and non human animals. Non human animals are constantly trying to survive preventing them from advancing like we do. They will always stay struggling and never become anything more, where humans are exponentially advancing. This is the biggest difference between us, we will always advance while they remain the same. This higher level of thinking has allowed us to talk and combine minds. We have many unnecessary possessions like; t.v., game systems, cars, and air conditioning. All these things non human animals do with out, but due to our higher level of thinking, we grew custom too.

1 comment:

Brendan Lavelle said...

I believe this distinction of “human vs. animal intelligence” is not morally relevant to how we treat animals. Most animal theorists, such as Peter Singer, would agree that human beings have a higher mental capacity, but this does not make animals morally irrelevant. What singer believes makes animals morally relevant is their ability to suffer. Singer writes “If a being suffers,there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration.” (Singer 37)