Sunday, March 24, 2024
Limping limpets
I have no particular quarrel with vegetarians but I am a bit puzzled by those who do it on moral grounds. What do they make of me prizing a limpet off a rock? The limpet presumably dies forthwith but does it have any feelings that we should respect? If not what is the morality involved? It seems to me that the limpet is animal life but has no feelings as we understand it so why is it bad to prise it off its rock? Should I feel guilty about making a limpet limp?
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Why dislodge the limpet from whatever it is doing? That would be my counter-question.
ReplyDeleteTo add contrast: someone who methodically t*o*r*t*u*r*e*s his victims is not likely to use his instruments on grass. I assume it is because he cannot capture the attention and awareness of grass to deposit his horror. Does grass suffer? I assume they do not. Would cats and dogs be in pain? Yes, many animals can let it be known if and when they are in pain, and humans I assume has a greater capacity to suffer. In what way does intelligence play a part in suffering?
Bacon does not grow on trees unfortunately. I do not know the mind of a pig and if it ever has wrestled with its placement in the food chain and given it more than a grunt. But even if we have domain over animals and use some of them for food, I would be puzzled if we did not try to minimize their pain in that particular process.
To be clear, I do not think our placement in the food chain makes us superior. If we were superior, then the Black Death or the recent global outbreak would not have been much of a problem?
Do as you would be done by is the golden rule. It most likely does not cover every aspect of life, but I think it is worthy of consideration since what we truly know about reality mostly seems to pertain to our selves. And so we can at least extend to others a concern/treatment based on what we know about ourselves.
Yes. Some moral decisions are easy and I do have rather Buddhist values of respecting all life so when I once prised a limpet off a rock out of curiosity I felt some guilt. But in view of my carnivorous lifestyle that seemed illogical
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