In a message dated 1/23/99 7:00:14 PM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Logical Fallacy Alert!!!!!
All birds can be animals without all animals being birds, and all humans can
be mammals without all mammals being human. However, obviously, some people
can be birdbrained. >>
No fallacy involved ... I didn't reverse the statement. However, this fallacy
does not apply here, as it is simply the mindless repetition of some "logic"
someone invented long ago which prevents clear thinking. If it is only that
which Separates me from other animals which makes me "human", then my
"humanity" is something paltry and unexciting indeed, terrifying to be exact.
What differentiates us is so small .... What makes me human is to a large
degree what I share, say, with other mammals ... and since most people do not
get in contact with this nor make these differentiations, they are hardly in a
position to understand what their "humanity" or "personhood" is in the first
place .... realizing the commonness of mammalian traits, the mammalian
assemblage, and understanding that many traits which have been misconstrued as
"human" are in fact shared mammalian traits, one can see that other mammals
share in what was Misconstrued as "human", and thus are to that extent,
"human".
