From: Steve Peterson (speterson@fast.net)
Date: Sat Oct 12 2002 - 15:43:52 BST
Platt wrote:
>
> Hi Steve:
>
>>> I'd say a human is at a higher level than a dog because a dog can't
>>> argue the point, scientifically or otherwise. (-:
>>
>> First if all let me say that I don't really doubt man's moral superiority,
>> but I want to understand it.
>
> Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, which advances the thesis that the
> world is a moral order, is his attempt to explain man's moral superiority
> in a rational way. If you accept his premises, understanding follows as
> long as you accept reason as a path to understanding. If you doubt your
> own rational faculty and depend on some guru or group for
> understanding, then you're likely to wander forever in a moral swamp.
>
>> I can't really be skeptical about this on a
>> fundamental level probably any more than I could be about my own existence,
>> but my concern is that I'm being merely humanocentric, or more specifically
>> stevo-centric. Biologically, I can't help but think that I am morally
>> superior to everything else in the universe, but I could also be socially
>> blinded on this issue in the way that American slave owners would have made
>> the exact same arguments about whites being morally superior to blacks.
>
> I readily accept the premise that being anthropocentric and platto-
> centric is a fundamental dimension of the human condition.
>
>>> Or put it another way. Would you rather be a dog than human? If not,
>>> why not?
>
>> We could make substitutions with a lot of different types of people not
>> just animals.
>
> You bet. And justifiably so.
> Platt
Steve:
I wonder if I'm using the term "morally superior" correctly. Part of what I
mean when I say that a man is morally superior to a dog is that it is more
wrong for someone to intentionally do harm to, enslave, kill, eat, etc. a
man than it is to do the same to a dog.
Are you saying that some people are morally superior to others in this sense
only in a capacity for moral behavior?
Steve
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