The Human Perception

Anthropocentrism: the belief that human beings are the central or most significant species on the planet (in the sense that they are considered to have a moral status or value higher than that of other animals), or the assessment of reality through an exclusively human perspective. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or "human exceptionalism". (Link)

* * * * * *

I believe that the vast majority of people on this planet hold Anthropocentric views, and will continue to until an intellectually superior life form can be confirmed. Don't believe me? Consider the following: most people would not hesitate to destroy the life of an insect if its presence presented a minor inconvenience to them, while the vast majority of people would hesitate to destroy the life of another human being, even if their presence was a massive inconvenience.

Also, most people don't consider that the whole framework of knowledge they possess is based on a human perspective. Their thought processes, emotions, morals and actions are all humanocentric. (Granted, this is the only logical perspective they can maintain, but still it is interesting to note when considering that other creatures also live amongst us.) Ever wondered what the perspective of reality of an average camel might be? Or how about your pet at home? Or even the bee in your garden?

So what is the point of this thread? Is it to make you feel guilty about your humanocentric views, or function as a form of activism to promote the rights of non-human creatures? No, what I really intended with this thread was to make you think. Think about the nature of reality and how your existence relates to the existence of other people and creatures around you.

Cats by far are more intelligent than humans .. cats also better company in most cases ...

But who can really say that we're the superior species? In many ways, other species are superior to us. They can camouflage, breathe underwater, fly, expel boiling water in the same manner as Mace, employ ventriloquism, and change genders in order to asexually reproduce. Just to name a few talents that we humans do not possess. The fact is, if even a tenth of the species on Earth decided to exterminate our own, we would lose. Guaranteed. We are a minority, we are not superior, and a few hundred billion years will make this quite clear to whomever survives that long.

Comparatively speaking, we may one day be relegated to a category of biological complexity and intellectual function similar to the cockroach. We will one day be regarded as dinosaurs.

In the end though I don't think it is about the superior life form or whatever term you want to use. I think were starting to realize that we as humans are dependent on Nature as a whole. some of the insects mentioned are key to our food supply without them we are unable to cultivate some of the food that we need. I mean without tress we can't breathe (I know tress are not a sentient being) But it just goes with the point that we are dependent on nature in so many ways.

originally posted by: Dark Ghost



No, what I really intended with this thread was to make you think. Think about the nature of reality and how your existence relates to the existence of other people and creatures around you.

I think anthropocentrism Is hardwired in to the human species as a defense mechanism. All things considered we don't even come close to our evolutionary goal much less spiritually. Intellectually Man still is stuck in the primitive tribal stage where survival is paramount.

We're monkeys with guns

I forget where I heard about it.

Someone took '___' (spirit-molecule, god-particle) and saw a beetle cross his path on the ground, and he weeped.

Just sayin...

a reply to: Dark Ghost
Fortunately, I have already been entertaining these thoughts for quite some time now. The masses, however, definitely haven't, and perhaps should.

I've only benefited so far from awareness of my own ignorance. I am not sure how to compare ontologically subjective experiences with others. It seems to me language falls short of allowing us to make comparisons.

Perhaps it has benefited me existentially in my own quest to find meaning in what it means to be human. I think that I have a grasp of my place in the universe and am aware that what I perceive internally isn't necessarily how things are external of mind (if the external world exists at all).

originally posted by: BaalZebub
a reply to: Dark Ghost
Fortunately, I have already been entertaining these thoughts for quite some time now. The masses, however, definitely haven't, and perhaps should.

I've only benefited so far from awareness of my own ignorance. I am not sure how to compare ontologically subjective experiences with others. It seems to me language falls short of allowing us to make comparisons.

Perhaps it has benefited me existentially in my own quest to find meaning in what it means to be human. I think that I have a grasp of my place in the universe and am aware that what I perceive internally isn't necessarily how things are external of mind (if the external world exists at all).

That's a nice profound first post.

Welcome to ATS and ignore the trolls....

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Yes, we are quite the egocentric little monkies.

a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows

Technically we are apes. Monkeys have tails.

As for the OP, yeah I completely agree that people will kill other species without even feeling guilty. But where do you draw the line, is it not better to kill certain lifeforms that will cause disease, such as viruses, fungus, bacteria, insects like mosquitos, house flies etc? These can make us sick or even kill us. Also the likelihood is that most of the above will not die of old age anyway due to being in the bottom tiers of the food chain. Life is about survival, and to survive others must die. Its a messed up system, but perhaps its the only system that works in the physical realm.

I personally try not to kill anything that is not a threat to me. Even annoying insects I will usually leave be, its just flies I generally get rid of.

a reply to: Firefly_

I wasn't shooting for precision.

We are no better than any other organism on earth.

It's easy to scorn at our perceived shortcomings and then look at other forms of life that don't show the same behaviors and say "see, they don't do this, only we do this." Those other forms of life, as far as we can tell, are not aware of themselves. They are not aware that one day they will seize to be. We humans have a much more profound awareness that we have to deal with physically and emotionally. We are aware that things don't last and that all things pass.

We cannot compare our behavior to any other form of life with similar mental attributes. Certainly we should strive for enlightenment - which is the idea behind this tread - but, I think that we should give humanity a break. Since we can only really compare ourselves with ourselves, it seems to me we have a lot on our plate.

how can you say animals are not aware of their own mortality when anyone who has owned a dog will soon learn his faithfull friend is aware when he is sick and wont leave his side if death is oncoming the dog knows.

As for our perception problem i believe most of this is ego a more and more common part of humans, we go through cycles of wanting to surround ourselfs with physical possesion then give it aware to find some spiritual fullfilment, lets face it we know less about ourselfs than a dog knows about himself we are the inferior race which is obviously got a long ways to go

I have heard those arguments about how animals are able to "tell" certain things. Animals become a part of peoples family and they become very attached to them. We don't know that there is anything beyond instinct at play here. When a person is dying and the dog comes in and lays by their owner, we don't know that the dog knows the owner is dying... or if he's just feeling the heat from the persons fever. My intention here is not to knock animal owners, or discredit their relationship with them. I'm just saying we don't know. We do however, know quite about out our species and all the complexities involved in our thoughts, emotions, reactions, etc.

I don't think it's fair to say dogs know more about themselves (if dogs exist at all) than humans know about themselves. We can't determine exactly what a dog knows about itself, anything beyond that it exists and it's hungry... if even that.

do you own a dog i have trained dogs for years they know when other dogs are dying to if you spent as much time as i have with them this becomes so obvious i am only stating from my own experiences however.

dont mean to dis humans but we really have some ego issues in this race ya dont see dogs talking about humans behaviour

lol lol

Well, I do love animals. I am not saying they are insignificant, I am just saying we don't know for sure what they know or how they know it. They might think so completely different (if they think at all) that we could never hope to possibly comprehend it.

We certainly have issues as humans. We don't understand how we work yet. We don't know how the brain works. We don't know differences in perception from one human to another. There is so much we don't know about ourselves. If we don't know we work, how can we fix our problems? You have to understand how a car works before you can fix it when it breaks down.

We are working on it. Our philosophical debates, research, and inquires are so vast that our knowledge is growing at an exponential rate right now. This is good news. We are making improvements.