Re: Stack Overflow

From: ernobe (ernobe_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 12/07/04 

Date: 7 Dec 2004 01:55:46 GMT

>
> Not all other animals can see, and not all can hear. Some have senses
> we don't, like sharks which can detect muscle movement at a distance
> via electrical impulses. So too with our mental faculties. Most
> animals, especially insects and the like, don't seem to know that they
> are thinking. From their small brains and their simpler behaviour that
> shows no sign of self-awareness, we might assume this bit of their
> brain is tiny, or it just isn't there. They can't "see" their own
> thoughts. We can, and they don't look the same as using our eyes to
> see matter, even if in each case our recognition was provoked by the
> same physical thing.
>

Our own self-awareness is motivated by trying to apply causal relations
which we discern in the world to our own actions. Since animals cannot
discern these, they have no self-awareness. The only thing that can happen
to them is to be deprived of that which they already have, which is why those
who have not been domesticated by man can only evince fear, and the natural
reaction to it, courage. Man, having self-awareness, recognizes that he can
be deprived of it thru negligence. This he recognizes as an evil, for he will
have lost faith in himself. At the same time, it follows that reminding each
other to speculate on ourselves is not socially beneficial, for society is
made up of self-aware entities ( regardless of what that has entailed for
them individually ), not of those who might think of it as a good idea. 

-- 
http://www.costarricense.cr/pagina/ernobe

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