: Thing is Red; I've been posting here for possibly two years. In those
: two years you'd think out of the many ideas and arguments I've
: posulated there might be just one that has a tiny bit of merit but you
: would never know it from the reactions I get.On those rare occaisions we have crossed swords, man, I have thought you to be an adequately thought thought through and eloquent reactionary..of the best sort.. ;)
: When I do make a salient
: point (I'm of the opinion it's happened once or twice) I usually get
: back exactly what you accused me of - knee jerk reactions to some
: phrase that pushed a button and no substantive argument.
I don't actually recall accusing you of kneee jerk reaction, I accused you of being wrong and being ill-informed, tehre is a difference, squire..
: Of course, I'm certainly not above purile sarcasm
: if I'm right about something.
Indeed, who isn't. Off course I think in acadeic circles Singer is quite mainstream, but thats by academic standards. If we're going to take that route of course Milton's paradise lost had a mere 1200 readers when it was first published (English Population then roughly three million) so size of readership, in total relation to the population is not the main criterion of mainstreamness (many people use shakespearean quotes without ever having read or seen the man himself...). If not heard Dark Side of the moon..
. Without regard to
: the legitimacy of any of these claims, does it not borrow imperative
: from human suffering to title a book "Animal Liberation"? I think it is
: a bold attempt to equate humans and animals.
That is teh entire thrust of Singer's utiolitarianism, like I said, that there is no logical reason not to see animals as ethically considerable beings, indeed He campaigns for the creation of Gorrilistan IIRC. Animals are to be counted as equal to humans, the only entry criteria to the utilitarian equation being their ability to suffer. He calls the assumption that humans are superior, or that animals are not to be considered thus, speciesism. I disagree, being a humanist, but what the hey....like the man said, even if a Lion could speak, we could not understand it...
