At 09:35 AM 20/05/99 -0400, Cypher wrote:
Dan Plante wrote:
>> Humor me here, if you will:
>>
>> 1) Define "living organism", then:
>...Kant's definition is as good as any for now [paraphrased through
>Fritjof Capra]: a [living] organism is one in which the "parts also
>exist /by means of/ each other, in the sense of producing one
>another."
I have to agree with Roni here, Cypher. Deliberately avoiding the essence of a question is grade 7 debating club fare, and a poor excuse for dialogue. This is the most effective way to let me know that you don't want to hear what I have to say.
Also, you started out by insinuating meat eaters are analogous to rapists, yet below you start out with a stance of philosophical pragmatism, and end up arguing from aesthetics. Argument for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end, is fun for some people. For others, it's just a pointless waste of time and energy
>> 2) Identify exactly how far down the food chain of "living
>> organisms" you go before you cease to bother yourself with the
>> considerations you grant to cows, and:
>
>...I have to kill to live, an implacable fact. I eat as low on the
>food chain as is consistent with my material situation [ie. living in
>urban north america with no present option to alter that
>circumstance] and the continuation of my person. I don't demand that
>cows not be killed [I don't *demand* anything], but I think that
>blandly consuming a being with a mind without participating directly
>in the death of that being, getting your hands dirty, as it were, is
>both thoughtless and disrespectful.
>...sticking with cows for the moment. A cow is a complex, intricate,
>wonderful creature. Cows are beautiful, biologically fascinating and
>rife with significance in the history of the humyn organism.
>Mechanically raising, slaughtering, packaging and eating creatures
>with as much integral meaning to our culture, thoughtways, myth-
>structures and history [in story and analysis], doing so while
>deliberately distancing ourselves from exactly what that entails, is
>blind and ignorant [willfully so] and incredibly selfish.
>...you want to eat a cow, fine. Take responsibility for your choice.
>hell, realize that you are MAKING a CHOICE. Raise the cow. Put your
>own energy and time into the life of this organism. Then participate
>in the slaughter and butchery, or at least watch. Have respect for
>what you destroy.
>
>-psypher
>[I think I answered point 3 above]
>
>>
>> 3) Why you draw the line there.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Dan
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