[Fernando] What do you think about Quality in animals? Are some of them, on their own point of view, better than one another?
[Arlo] I think the way you are using "better" here represents a symbolic view (because it is comparative). And it reminds me of Pirsig's caution that an aboriginal could arrive in New York City and declare everyone "backwards" for not knowing how to use a boomerang. "Betterness", in terms of contrasted representational symbols, is a social-intellectual exercise and as such is something animals do not partake in (Having said this, I remind you I do think some animals make use of symbols, just not to the level of sophistication man does. And, of course, I do not think this makes animals "inferior" or "worse" than "man".) To use both Pirsig's and Tomasello's vocabulary, animals are awash in immediate Dynamic experience, and make value-decisions therein, but lack the static ratcheting necessary to make social or intellectual value judgements (again, I don't mean this as blanketing as it sounds, I do think some animals, such as dolphins, do use rather sophisticated symbols). Ultimately, of course, this question demands the point of view of the animal in question, without which we are only guessing. My experience with cats, by the way, tells me they do feel they are "better" than us. :-) moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
