Re: Humans ARE Animals

Humans ARE Animals. We are but one type of animal.

You know what I meant. Stop being nitpicky. Humans are distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom in that we are self-aware to a degree that allows us to determine our own destiny (within the laws of nature, of course.)

We can barely communicate with our own kind enough to guess as to what motivates them. We don't understand the communications of others and can only surmise their "intentions."

Sorry, Dante, but that's bullshit. We have an incredibly complex communication system and we can get our ideas across for the most part. If we couldn't, we could never have built civilization.

However, its easy to see that if we treat our own species exceptionally on the grounds of what properties they display, then we ought to be prepared to treat others based on their differences; rather than on lumping them all together as "not-us."

There are obvious distinctions between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom in terms of degree of intelligence and self-awareness. You can play willfully ignorant if you like, but that will get you nowhere. Who are you really trying to convince? Because I think you know full well this argument doesn't pass muster with me. I've never said we shouldn't give animals certain rights, but we should be fully aware that we only do so because it serves our ends, not because animals have inherent rights (there's that silly idea again popping its ugly little mystical head up.)

And if animals DID get the upper-hand, that then would be the "Social Contract" in a majoritarian system where morality is what the largest body believes benefits them.

It depends. If enough animals achieved a degree of consciousness wherein they were able to work together towards conquering humanity and actually achieved it, then that might be so, yes. However, if it just happened that animals acted on instinct in such a way and at such a time that they accidentally conquered humanity, well that's just pure accident. It is also possible that a handful of animals consciously conquer humanity. That wouldn't be the Social Contract at work; that would be a military coup. All three of these are theoretically possible, I suppose, but so improbable as to be pretty much unthinkable.