From: Rafael Anschau (anschau.ez@terra.com.br)
Date: Fri Feb 09 2001 - 16:12:57 MST
At 22:55 08/02/01 -0800, you wrote:
>I can't accept your line of reasoning here, but would defend to the death
your right to
>say it. Something we humans have going for us that appears to be lacking
in most of the
>other animals (as far as we can tell) is this nifty little thing called
culture, which
>provides us with such potentially elevating concepts as ethics, morality,
altruism and
>cooperation (among so many others). Self preservation is still there
underneath it all, of
>course, but we now have thousands of years worth of conceptual tools that
help us to think
>about our actions and their consequences.
One interesting thing is to think about the consequences of HAVING ethics,
morality, altruism and so forth. I sometimes wonder how many problems
in the world are caused by those seemingly good conceptual tools.
Arrogance against our natural instincts, some argue, may cause more damage
than most people think.
The book Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, provides good insight on the possible
catastrophic
consequences of human culture.
Rafael
---------------------------------------------
Rafael Anschau <-----> Porto Alegre - RS
ICQ 5028279 <-----> Brazil
""I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded
is another step forward." -- Thomas A. Edison
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