danasider said:
I agree that our impact both on other species and our own is pretty terrifying. However, I'd argue that as a species, we are not morally broken. In fact, we are the most moral animals on the face of the planet. There is some growing evidence that certain animals have a sense of right and wrong, but no other species' sense of morality comes close to what humans feel. All animals (including humans) kill each other and their own. But the fact that cannibalism and infanticide are acceptable in some species while they're overwhelmingly frowned upon by humans is a point for mankind. There's a lot of morally broken groups in our species, but many groups strive to fight for other species (tigers, as a species, wouldn't do that for us) and the environment. Our impact is only larger because of our advanced capabilities...not our morality. |
This is interesting. I would argue that its tough to label any other species outside of other apes or octopi as having morals simply because we seem to operate at a much higher level of sentience. Be that due to brain, soul, spirit etc I am not here to discuss.
Either way, it would be tough to argue that we aren't broken by saying we are less broken than X species.
That's why I say as a species. Not all people are equal in their brokeness or morality. However, even those that strive to be great have moral failures of some kind.
In regards to the environment I would argue both. Its due to us being more capable, but also lacking morality. Due to our higher level of operation we have a prerogative to protect and nourish our planet and yet we haven't. Why? Fear, anger, and greed come to mind first. All of which, except fear, demonstrate a lack of morality. A perfectly moral mankind would still negatively impact the planet as we will need to use it to survive, but we wouldn't hunt to extinction, we would clean up after ourselves and we wouldn't be so divided over protecting our planet.
This of course is effected by whether or not you view morality (generally) as subjective or objective.
