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Zman Kietilipooskie

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Debate: Are humans better than other forms of life?

Many people think that something called respect applies to all forms of life; on the other hands humans are essentially above other animals is the sense of intelligence and culture. Because of our mental superiority it is ethical for animals to be farmed and mistreated, animals treated by the standards human would receive as punishment for murder and other horrendous acts.

Are Humans really superior to other forms of life?

Topics: philosophy society
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  • Samantha Moore

    • +2
    Dec 5 2012: Humans are not superior, however our technology is. In fact, our technology is the only thing keeping us at the top of the food chain because without it, we would still be running from predators. Believing we are better than any other species that are surviving is narcissistic. The only reason humanity has been able to progress is an anomaly in itself. Mostly caused by superior predators being extinct. To assume that we have simply fought our way to the top of the food chain all by ourselves is ignorant. All creatures/being are equal in the fact that we can all be destroyed by this planet. I mean we rose from a evolutionary glitch, we could just as easily fall by one.

    • Zman Kietilipooskie

      • 0
      Dec 5 2012: Being that what makes us great is our metal capabilities, isn't a product of our superiority our superior technology. Other wise relatively our technology would not be so great if other animals had a equal or greater intellectual capacity.

      We didn't fight our way to the top we outsmarted everything else, there is a difference.

      • Samantha Moore

        • 0
        Dec 6 2012: I have to disagree. Our superiority is secured by our technology alone our greater mental capabilities mean nothing if we are competing in the wild. A lion will hunt you down and kill you no matter how intelligent you are. however you can survive the attack if you shoot the lion with gun. And superiority is all a matter of perspective.m

        • Zman Kietilipooskie

          • 0
          Dec 6 2012: A little fun fact about lions, I am not sure which or how many tribes in Africa do this but a coming of age ritual is to kill a lion by yourself with a spear. It is not our technology that kills the lion or makes the gun, it is our intelligence.
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          Vincent Moon

          • 0
          Dec 6 2012: I have to agree with Zman. Samantha, If your argument is...

          (We are at the top of the food chain) = (because we have Technology)

          and it is true that..

          (We have Technology) = (because we have Higher intelligence)

          Then it only follows that..

          (We are at the top of the food-chain) = (because we have Higher intelligence)

    • Jarred Figlar-Barnes

      • 0
      Dec 5 2012: Evolutionary Glitch??? How can technology be a glitch if it was created through the process of evolution. Further more it was our brains which adapted to survive and solve complex problems that gave rise to technology. That being said I do believe that it is ignorant of us to put ourselves above every other species on this planet, there is no better or worst scenario. If some other species was pressured into evolving intelligence, they very well could have been in our shoes. Evolution is a very powerful mechanism, and will always continue to create new species and new types of life, now whether we as a species will survive long enough to see this is entirely up to us.

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