Why do you think we make pets of them? All intelligent species have a great deal in common, which is why they are able to communicate with and feel af...
These days, probably not. Up until the late 1970's, research wasn't at all well supervised or regulated in most countries. It was probably - just spec...
Usually, quite literally and directly rewarding. The handler gives him a treat. (And performing some act that is not of one's innate nature for a rewa...
I do now! And I know many examples of very bad scientific experimentation. I had no intention of including any of them in partly excusing ineptly desi...
That should be obvious from the definition of profit. I can only report what I see. I do not a see a 'slippery slope', which would suggest a soft land...
Where does Goldman Sachs' annual profit come from? No, I can't; I see a bloody great pit to fall into, and a long slow painful climb out again. For th...
I'll go along with that, but want to be generous and widen the scope of "need" to include benevolent aims and simple curiosity, as well as practical a...
We would have to wonder what's wrong with them. I've met some people who had given up on "the job market" or become fed up with being exploited and di...
Of course they would. The antisocial greedbags know perfectly well that they are unfair to the the other people. When the society is organized badly, ...
I think it's because we've become accustomed, through the 20th century, to evaluate human mental capability according to a standard, easily quantifiab...
And more, better technology becomes available every year. People are making astonishing nature documentaries. Any interested layman can learn a great ...
Probably the reverse. I didn't say better, just more. (Yes, I realize that many humans consider more/bigger/faster the ultimate in good.) But that doe...
Certainly. Evolution is a huge, complex, interconnected web of living things developing the faculties that best served their survival. Many of those f...
Indeed. But 'correct' isn't in the definition of reasoning, nor is the soundness of the result. It's a process that can be carried out more or less ef...
Why does 'reasoning' require a modifier? You can arrive at the wrong conclusion through a rational process, if you begin with false or incomplete info...
Of course not. The reason why something is necessary precedes any consciousness recognizing the necessity, which precedes any deliberate action taken....
Survival might be considered high on the list. Yes: seeds scattered on the ground sometimes get covered by dirt. Having eaten all the visible seeds, t...
So, an anthropo-exclusive definition, based on argument, rather than discernment of cause and effect, problem solving and practical decision-making. O...
They already have a language. The argument is over whether and how well they learn some version of a human language. Why would they want to? Wolves ha...
We're not only different in our capacity to learn, the speed at which we do it and in our ability to retain and recall information. The baboon/chimp d...
It's very possible that all models are flawed; I haven't seen a large enough sample to judge. I'm saying there are not enough axes. Thus, the areas of...
He was thinking rationally: looking at a problem and finding a solution. He did it quickly, because it was very simple problem. (One might question th...
Then the model is fatally flawed. Consider any real-life human being. Does he or she really only need or want one singular function from their society...
How can you assess rational thought, except through problem-solving? Problems arise in nature all the time and animals need to solve them in order to ...
Of course. Of course. Intuition is a shortcut to an answer in the absence of sufficient evidence to draw a logical conclusion. It is based on recalled...
Is there enough air for everyone to breathe? Is there enough clean water for everyone to drink and wash in? Is there enough food for everyone to be no...
What would you die without? So would everyone else. What would you die from? So would everyone else. Supply the first group of elements and eliminate ...
By the fact that it's not my vision alone: it's a distillation of historical information about social arrangements that were stable and equitable, of ...
Knowing what a place looks like and having a roadmap to it are separate ideas. I know what it looks like to me; i know how it works for everyone. I kn...
I don't advocate any kind of social engineering. I hope for social evolution. You can read Utopia as 'No Place' and assume that means either that it c...
Can't say I feel 'close' to Eliot. It's admiration, rather than kinship. At heart, I'm with the Romantics - Shelly, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, t...
My Gr 13 English teacher arranged for some of us to attend a small theater performance in Toronto. Low stage, no orchestra pit, actors making their en...
Not anymore. If I'm introduced to a new person now, another name falls through a lacuna in my brain - I just hope it's a dead pop singer's, not my nex...
Those obviously resonate with me. At the rate the rental on this body is increasing, I won't be able to stay very much longer. It's a time to apprecia...
I have no problem with it being in a corner I visit regularly, rather than being buries in Philosophy of Art, which can get ponderous and pretentious ...
It's possible. I've proved this on several occasions. Their public output is how they want to be known by other people. His public output is toxic ass...
Background; struggle with and recovery from substance abuse; helping other addicts - that sort of thing? I know nothing of his private life, hobbies o...
And I'm tired of repeating my own thoughts. I did look at your philosopher, and much prefer John Rawls. We are not likely ever to agree on this subjec...
Show me. In context, if at all possible. Could - not must. OK Instances of ideological conflict were obvious. To what extent they were utopian, or eve...
That's because "exist" is such a difficult word to agree on. I consider something that exists to be tangible, measurable; real. Concepts do not exist ...
I didn't drag genocide into this discussion. There would be all kinds of local disharmonies. So what? Any functioning society can institute a mechanis...
You don't need to argue about it. You only need to experience it. And if you doubt other people's ability to identify you, try committing a crime and ...
It all makes sense from a certain perspective, based on a certain set of assumptions. You may be right; humanity may be altogether irredeemable. I was...
Well, if you're not inclined to kill people for being different, why assume everyone else is? Why assume diversity equals conflict? I have lived peace...
No. I defined it as a society that satisfies peoples needs and provides opportunity for people to satisfy their own and one another's wants. This shou...
Needs, yes. Wants are individual; all the society can or should do is provide the opportunity for people to satisfy their own wants. Why the hell not?...
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