Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA01935 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 31 May 2000 20:04:47 +0100 From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk> Organization: Reborn Technology To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Primate Rights Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 19:54:54 +0100 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.0.21] Content-Type: text/plain References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174588B@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <00053120022700.00822@faichney> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Wed, 31 May 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
>I've always been arachnophobic myself (phobias having been discussed at some
>length on this list, I thought I'd just drop that one in).
>
>Is one difference about humans that we actually care about other species
>becoming extinct? (Quite aside from our awareness of extinction which I
>would guess is another).
The second depends on the first, though.
>Where does that come from- our concern for other species?
EO Wilson originated the concept of "biophilia" -- an inherited tendency to
love nature. I'm not at all well up on this, but the one example that
stuck in my mind was that mature, stable ecosystems tend to look beautiful
to us. I really don't know whether it might apply directly to other
species, but I'd guess it might be an important underpinning of a memeplex
that did assign intrinsic value to other species.
>I can see a logic in wanting to preserve species that we directly rely on in
>some way, such as for food. (I once said to a vegetarian, in a bit of pub
>banter, that if everyone in the world became vegetarians, then there would
>be no need for the millions of farm animals, and they'd all have to be
>slaughtered because- we'd need the land for crops, they'd use up resources,
>and they've been so selectively bred for so long they'd not be very capable
>in the wild).
Most vegetarians have probably heard that one many times. It is rather
obvious, if you don't mind me saying so, Vincent.
>Yet we also care about species that are potentially dangerous to us, such as
>Tigers and Wolves (e.g. plans to reintroduce wolves in several countries,
>including Scotland- where I live, that's why I mention it). I'm not opposed
>to any of this, I just wonder how this is adaptive behaviour for us.
Why should it be adaptive? Remember where you are! But I'm sure something
that was once adaptive lies behind it, and that might well be biophilia.
-- Robin Faichney===============================This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 31 2000 - 20:05:22 BST