animal lib?

[Lisa Rogers <eqwq.lrogers@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Why can only humans "labour"??  Engels says in his essay on human
bio-evolution, that labour begins with the use of tools.  Why?  Of
course he thought that only humans used tools, but we now know
different.  Of course, we do more of it than other animals, but what
about it is some kind of defining divide?

All animals, including humans, and indeed all lifeforms are indeed
different from inanimate objects.  That is covered by the definition
of "life" or "alive".  All living things have internal mechanisms for
detecting and responding to bodily damage.  Mammals especially are
large-brained compared to most other orders, and are wired very
similarly to each other.  They obviously feel pain and react to it in
similar ways [often non-verbal].

I hold that all lifeforms are indeed "living machines," including
humans, in many important respects.

Although I have no animal liberation position/justification prepared,
or even thoroughly thought out.

I do strongly recommend that one should not be based upon a
distinction of which lifeforms can "labor", or whether or not any
lifeforms are "living machines".

I think that would be claiming some kind of naturalistic/ scientific
basis for normative/ ethical prescriptions, which I don't think is
logically supportable.

Lisa

From: jeffs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (jeff)
[snip] But I'm struggling with the heart of the question, which is
the position Marxists hold about the relationship between humans and
other  species. That is, the thing that distinguishes humanity is the
ability to  labour, yeah? But what then does that tell us about other
life forms? Are  all other species, from plankton to blue whales
simply counterposed to us as  one reactionary mass (as it were)? Or
are animals qualitatively different  from inanimate objects?
[snip]
Surely this is unsatisfactory. If animals are simply living machines
(and  there's a tradition in European philosophy that argues this),
well, why  should we oppose cruelty to animals?





     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

     ------------------