Ethics and Moral Status in relationship to Nonhumans

After today's discussion, I think that like many of my classmates, my perspective on animals is primarily the result of personal subjective experience, interwoven with familial and cultural constructs. What I found most enriching were the discussions re:meta-cognition and moral reflection as criteria for determining moral status for nonhumans and humans. If I am interpreting correctly - adding further complexities to determing moral status are "Intuitions" (H. Miller style). Intuitions as attributes shared by humans and nonhumans arising out of inherent sociality, which in term arises out of a biological imperative for sociality (as a specie-specific survival mechanism) is also common to humans and some nonhumans.

As a result of this class I am reflecting more on my pre-existing and personally-conceived assumptions. My biases are grounded not only in my subjective experiences, but also on what "feels good to believe" - like faith or religion. Grounded in metaphysics and supernaturalism - not empiracally based in Western science.

I am unsure how to factor in some profoundly affective inter-specie encounters I consider myself blessed to have participated had with "wild" animals, "pets," and other domesticated animals. I will try to download a picture I took of a moose last Febuary, sniffing my hands and camera, he touched his muzzle to my fingers. He was so close you can clearly see his beautiful eyelashes.

Classmates shared experiences of their pets seeking to comfort them, of cats and dogs having healing effects for them. I chose to rehab from hip surgery at home rather than a nursing home, where my dogs and cats were active, integral aspects of the healing process.

Focusing on the nonhumans, I can see and admit, the possibility of these actions as biologically driven instincts, or learned behavior - via reward/punishment - or even learned through intelligent (cognitive) observation (by the nonhumans) as discussed within today's class. Still, I am not convinced, nor am I able to admit, that is the only explaination for nonhumans' capacity for inter-specie experiences. Is this purely a metaphysical attachment on my part? I think not.

Is our science too incomplete, too exclusionary in assigning meta-cognition and therefore moral status to nonhuman species where they do not share a common capacity for communication? Do humans over-rely on verbal-based language to assign competency and sufficient status to nonverbal nonhumans? Remember that movie "Nell" starring Jodi Foster? What if nonhumans could teach humans how to communicate their way? Would they then be obligated to assign the humans moral status?

I don't think nonhuman animals normally operate that way. Not that they can't be what humans commonly define as jealous, or greedy, or needy or pushy. I think it has been well established at least with dogs, that there are biologically based survival mechanisms determining those behaviours humans interpret negatively.

I thought that in moral terms, nonhumans do not suffer from non-survival related attachments the way humans do. Are they operating that way because they are morally and metaphysically superior to humans? Do they innately know or intuit the nature of the Universe. Or can it be that because they do not perceive or consider themselves as separate from the Universe - that they do not meta-cognate like humans - because they already know?

This course keeps making my mind change directions. I thought I knew and was comfortable in a paradigm that worked well for me. This course keeps fracturing my paradigms, and I can't restructure them fast enough. Not comfortable but stimulating.

l like to keep my bases covered - the old - "there are gi-normous mega-species out there who can't perceive humans because we're such mini, insignificant-to-them Beings" syndrome. If there are humans and bacteria, then why not mega-beings and humans? I like to think in terms of balance. Whenever possible I like to assign at least the possibility of mega-cognition and moral status to others, humans and nonhumans. But that criteria is tricky.