“Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.” IfsShouldHumansActionNaturalSimpleAnimalViewsProductsBehaviorArgumentShould HaveBasesAriseNervousPrimariesHuman BehaviorSelectionNatural SelectionFallacyNervous System Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“In view of the fading animals the proliferation of sewers and fears the sea clogging, the air nearing extinction we should be kind, we should take warning, we should forgive each other Instead we are opposite, we touch as though attacking, the gifts we bring even in good faith maybe warp in our hands to implements, to manoeuvres” ShouldKindHandsAnimalViewsAirSeaOppositesForgivingBe KindWarningExtinctionAttackingFadingProliferationGood FaithWarpSewersClogging Book:Selected Poems: 1965-1975 Source: Selected Poems: 1965-1975
“The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.” HumansWellsMaySelfReasonFightingBeliefReligiousHuman BeingsAnimalResultsViewsAwarenessBehaviorImportanceIndependenceAssumingSpeciesGuidesKingdomsCharacteristicsDestructiveDelusionNo ReasonConformityTerritoryTraitsWarfareStubbornExtinctionSelf DestructiveConformistAnimal Kingdom Book:The Lost World Source: The Lost World
“For more than a century, people have often thought that the conclusion to draw from Darwin's vision is that Homo sapiens, our species - and we're just animals too, we're just mammals - that there is nothing morally special about us. I myself don't think this follows at all from Darwin's vision, but it is certainly the received view in many quarters.” PeopleThinkingAnimalViewsVisionSpecialCenturyDrawsSpeciesConclusionQuartersHomo SapiensMammals Author:Daniel Dennett
“In this twenty-first century, there's no one like Sharona Muir who can write, in bright accurate language, animals real or imaginary in an updated bestiary that riffs on evolution, extinction, and what it means to be human among other species. We need this view, and you'll be right there with her on every page of Invisible Beasts.” NeedsWritingFirstsHumansMeanRealLanguageAnimalViewsCenturyEvolutionPagesTwentiesSpeciesInvisibleBeastImaginaryAccurateExtinctionWhat It Means To Be Human Author:John Felstiner
“Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. … Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His reason for this view was … that some people can do sums. … It is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is shown in various ways, but most emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The Greek system of numerals was very bad, so that the multiplication table was quite difficult, and complicated calculations could only be made by very clever people.” PeopleKnowsMenWayFirstsHas BeensMadeReasonDifficultCan DoAnimalViewsVirtueDifficultyTablesVariousComplicatedIntellectCleverRationalGreekMasteryGreeceCalculationsComplicationArithmeticVery CleverMultiplicationNumerals Author:Bertrand Russell
“To mourn deeply for the death of another loosens from myself the petty desire for, and the animal adherence to life. We have gained the end of the philosopher, and view without shrinking the coffin and the pall.” EndsDeathDesireAnimalViewsPhilosopherPettyMournCoffinsShrinkingAdherence Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
“It is doubtful that the dissection of living animals and plants could be done by those who believe them to be holy. A pantheist would not view trees as so many board feet in the manner a Christian would. A pantheist would be less likely to measure the number of acre feet coming over a waterfall than his Christian descendent, centuries later who had become a scientist. That which is sacred would be handled with a certain reverence.” BelieveDoneWould BeChristianCertainAnimalViewsNumbersTreeFeetCenturyHolyScientistSacredPlantEnvironmentalBoardsReverenceStewardshipDoubtfulAcresWaterfallsDissection Author:Wes Jackson
“I was always empathetic with animals. It's a terrible and self-involved point of view that we do something because someone else is exploitable.” SelfAnimalViewsInvolvedTerriblePoint Of ViewEmpathetic Author:Lily Tomlin
“I view cats as more like wild animals. We feed it, but a lot of times it's not eating the food because it's murdering other animals outside and eating their meat.” AnimalViewsEatingCatMeatWild Animal Author:Jake M. Johnson
“There was an idea that God created man different from other animals, because man was rational and animals had drives and instincts. That idea of a rational man that was specially created went out the window when Darwin showed that we evolved from animal ancestors, that we have instincts, much as do animals, and that our instincts are very important. It was a much more sophisticated, nuanced, and rich view of the human mind.” MenMindHumansImportantIdeasDifferentAnimalViewsRichWindowInstinctRationalHuman MindAncestorSophisticated Author:Eric Kandel
“There are good intentions behind many peoples conversion to veganism, including an admirable devotion to the well-being of animals and a justified skepticism about the crap the USDA allows manufacturers to put in our food. But its hard to ignore the often sanctimonious nature of what some nutritionists view as an extremist way of eating.” WayWellsHardAnimalViewsBehindsEatingIntentionIncludingConversionDevotionWell BeingSkepticismCrapJustifiedVeganismAdmirableGood IntentionsExtremistNutritionistSanctimonious Author:Julie Klausner
“The romantic view of the natural world as a blissful Eden is only held by people who have no actual experience of nature. People who live in nature are not romantic about it at all. They may hold spiritual beliefs about the world around them, they may have a sense of the unity of nature or the aliveness of all things, but they still kill the animals and uproot the plants in order to eat, to live. If they don't, they will die.” PeopleIfsWorldMayStillsSpiritualOrderDiesBeliefNaturalAnimalViewsAll ThingsPlantUnityNatural WorldEdenSpiritual Beliefs Author:Michael Crichton
“If... deceit is fundamental to animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray - by the subtle signs of self-knowledge - the deception being practiced.' Thus, 'the conventional view that natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of mental evolution.” IfsWorldSelfFactsTurnsStrongNaturalAnimalViewsProduceCommunicationOughtEvolutionDegreesFundamentalsFavorsNervousSpotsDeceptionMotiveUnconsciousSubtleDeceitBetrayAccurateConventionalSelf KnowledgeSelectionNaiveSelectSelf DeceptionNatural SelectionNervous SystemRendering Author:Robert Trivers
“From an egotistical point of view, I'm always interested in roles that push me as a person. I'm interested in humans as animals and as products of society.” HumansPersonsAnimalViewsRolesProductsPoint Of ViewEgotistical Author:Tom Cullen