[ExI] Moral and ethical rats.

[Stefano Vaj]

2011/12/12 John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com>

> I find it interesting that people will often use the expression,
> "they acted like animals," to indicate acts of great brutality.
>

Does anybody remember Konrad Lorenz?

Animals are aggressive, animals are social and empathic. Humans are
animals. Humans are aggressive, humans are social and empathic.

One problems however exists with humans.

Animal aggressivity is normally ritualised and limited (btw, especially in
heavily-armed predators, much less with erbivores happily killing one
another) by hardwired ethological restraints.

On the other hand, while we also have those ethological restraints, so that
an average human has no less reluctance to kill a fellow human with her
teeth and nails (unless she has a good reason to do that) than the next
chimp, our ethological firmware does not say a thing about pressing a
button unleashing nuclear war...

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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