I think Animals and Why They Matter, by Mary Midgley, is pretty interesting so far. In the beginning of her book she starts out discussing the life boat ethic and if it is morally right for us humans to think this way. She explains how the Life Boat ethic does not give you many choices to chose from and how it should be used only if all the other possibilites have been tried before this. The three options that the Life Boat ethic consist of is take all people on board and sink the ship, take only some people, or save yourself and no one else survives. She believes that this is a very selfish way to think and we should use other possiblities before this.
I really liked how she described our society as being very competitive because I think that this is very true. She decribes how competition is a metaphor for our social lives and that can be some what of a problem. I believe some competition is good for people because it can make people want to do better and it gives them a sense of meaning. I also liked the elephant example that Midgley used about the hunter that was bored of hunting smaller animlas so he decided to hunt the giant elephant for the only meaning of hunting and killing it and nothing else. He believed that the elephant was good comeptition to him because he was such a great hunter but the elephant had no involvment in this competition. We strive to always do better than others and to be the best which can also be very harmful to our environment as a whole.
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