Quote:
Originally posted by Devils'Advocate@Sep 8 2005, 11:10 AM
So why are cats and dogs put on equal footing but cows and pigs and sheep and goats are not?
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I think you're right about that...
Cats and dogs are put on a pedestal (in your example) because of people's attachment to them. They're cute, so people value them more than fat cows. What this tells me is that what people *really* value is their own emotional opinion...not the dog or cat itself.
"Worth" is purely subjective. None of us is worth anything in the grand scheme of things. We're all going to end up as the building blocks of some future star, planet, or black hole. On those grounds, I say that humans are not worth more or less than animals...we just are what we are.
If you want to start talking about microeconomics, religion, or psychology, then you can start assigning a worth to various animals. The philosophy professor didn't put his opinion in context though, so I have to assume he's saying that humans are *fundamentally* worth more than animals...I disagree.
(I don't mean to argue with anyone who isn't arguing with me...I'm just expanding on my thoughts, using quoted post as a starting point)