Blog #15

David Abram makes some interesting points. He is saying that animals and humans are more alike than what people think they are. We both communicate with each other with body language and sounds. Humans speak to each other verbally with words animals do it with different kinds of sounds. We humans may not understand what they are saying but they do, just like they do not understand what we are saying. We are different but very much alike. When animals, for example, birds sense something bad or even if it was good coming there way, they have different sounds that they use to let the other birds know. Those birds will understand what is going on. Birds are actually very vocal and this is their kind of language. Animals think and and have thoughts just like humans do. We do it very differently, but we all do it. We both have to do it to survive, we need to think in ways that would help us get through each day, each situations and way to stay alive. David Abram made me realize that animals are a lot like us. I never really thought that animals would think but it does make sense because in certain situations. For example, if it is for them to save their lives or even to hunt for food they have to have a certain strategy to do so, and the only way to do this is by using their thoughts and thinking it out.

Blog 15

David Abram shows how animal and human intelligance differ but also relates it in a way that shows that animals are not superior to humans and humans are not superior to animals. Animals think just as much as humans do; however, they think in a different way that humans do. They think differently only because they think to fit their own needs. They think in ways that help them to survive in the habitat that they live in, just as humans do things to stay alive in the habitats they live in. Both humans and animals speak but in different ways. He demonstrates this with the birds. Birds are very vocal creatures. Another thing that Abram shows is that animals are just as capable as humans to express emotion and fear. When a danger is near or birds need to alert one another they have certain vocal sounds. They speak in a type of bird language that is different than humans, but it works for them and it can even work for other species of birds. Abram shows that there might be a species barrier, but it is not nearly as big of a barrier as most people see it to be. Animals and humans have a lot of things in common. Body language is one thing that humans and animals have in commong. It is in a different way but both species do it. Same with vocal sounds. Humans speak and birds have songs or vocal sounds. It all is nearly the same thing just in different ways that the other species does not understand. Speech and thought is not only a human trait. Abram shows that things in nature also do those things.

Blog 5 Deep Ecology

Naess presents what deep ecology is and tells us what it consists of. Deep ecology is looking and examining all the way to the bottom of what the problem is. We as humans are fastly destroying our planet. The farther we put ourselves away from nature, the more we seem to destroy it. Our lives are so boxed up and closed in from nature. Maybe if would spend more time outside, or were not so dependent upon our houses we would be inclined to help nature? Shallow ecology of our environment would be looking at problems that our world is facing and temporarily fixing them. We need to take a much "deeper" look into the problem.

The book No Impact Man is a very good book that explains to us how to live a year without making a significant impact upon the Earth. The man in this book Collin Beaven commits to this idea and changes his whole lifestyle. He also finds out that he and his family become more happy due to the project. This book is a perfect example of deep ecology. This man does not impact the environment negatively at all, and trust me that is a very hard thing to do. Everything a human being does today hurts the environment in some distinct way. We need to change how we live our lives and give up some things that are not necessary or essential in our way of life.

Blog 15

David Abram makes some very interesting points in the selections from his book, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, read in class. He challenges the commonly held Cartesian beliefs regarding intelligence and their place next to the imperceptible wall known as the species barrier. In his chapter regarding birds, Abram shows how animal and human intelligence differ, but then relates these intelligences to the roles that each play in the lives of the human and animal - showing one is not superior to the other. "We spend much of our time deploying a very rarefied form of intelligence, manipulating abstract symbols while our muscled body is mostly inert. Hence, thinking, for us, seems to have little bearing on our carnal life; it often seems entirely independent of our body and our bodily relation to the biosphere...Other animals in contrast...think with the whole of their bodies. A nuanced necessary to orient and forage in a world of ever-changing forces" (Abram, 189). With this quote Abram shows that animals think just as much as humans, only differently to fit their own needs - the needs of one forced to survive in the forests and skies of the earth. Next, Abram focuses on speech, another trait specifically held as strictly human. Through a demonstration of the various calls and songs of the birds, he shows them as not only a thinking species, but also a vocal one - using language to warn the other creatures of the forest about possible danger. "The alarm call is uttered whenever danger is sensed...and it usually varies in volume with the degree of sensed danger...Upon hearing an alarm call, even birds form other, neighboring species halt whatever they're up to...Other animals, too, commonly stop and take notice" (Abram, 194). With his demonstration of bird "language," Abram shows that animals are just as capable of humans to express fear and emotion, speaking as part of "...an enigmatic cosmos that already spoke (speaks) to us in a myriad of tongues" (Abram, 4). In the selections from his book, Abram works to show that the species barrier is not nearly as dense as once imagined. The traits once considered strictly human, speech and thought, surround the earth in every aspect of its being - among the animals, through the trees, as a living biosphere.

QUIZ 13

Burdiansky argues against Perterson's idea about animals having the emotions that humans consist of. In the article Burdiansky expresses his thoughts saying animals do not have the morals and emotions that humans have and that we are different. I feel that Midgely would respond to this argument by discussing the differences between animals and humans and that we are completely different species. This does not mean that she believes that animals have no values and are mindless machines that are spread throughout the earth but that humans and animlas do not fit into the same category when it comes to cognitive processes. She would argue that it is antropocentric to apply human emotions to animals. That is why she would not agree with Peterson's argument about the Gorillia acting with his human like emotions to rescue the boy because we are just insisting on what we feel the animal feels which Midgely would openly disagree with.

Quiz 13

Budiansky argues Peterson saying that animals have no moral reason or ability to know what is right and to act upon it. Budiansky believes that animals are inferior to humans in this sense. A great example would be the case of the gorilla. In this instance, a gorilla saves a boy who falls by bringing him to the door/fence. Does the gorilla do this knowing that it is the right thing to do, or is it just playing around and fetching the boy like they do with the gorilla with a doll. Budiansky says that the gorilla has no moral values. They do not know right from wrong. Midgley disagrees with this statement. She believes that animals do have a sense of right and wrong, its just in a different form. For example if a human walks by a baby cub, they can easily be killed because the mother of the cub is protecting her baby. She does not know that we are just passing by. So, animals values are a lot differently than humans. Gorillas are some of the most enhanced species out there. They are very smart and can learn very well. So, overall Midgley believes that animals have moral values and Budiansky does not.

I believe with Midgley that animals do have moral values. They just have a different sense of them than we do. Why should we believe that we are better than animals and are more superior? If anything we have the responsibility to help them rather than consume them and act like they are of no value.

BAY pig in the city blog 14

This was a very interesting movie. Overall, it was pretty good. This movie is about a pig named Bay who visits the city with his mother. They stay in a very peculiar place with other animals. Bay has never seen the city before and is very fascinated by it. His mother gets herself into some trouble by the police and is arrested. At the same time the "hotel" that Bay is staying in is being swarmed by the police and animal control people. Bay manages to escape and frees his friends that are being held in an animal prison. Bay's mother finally gets loose and finds out that her pig is missing. Eventually they find each other and everything turns out fine. The place where they were staying is back up and running and is now allowed to accept animals in its facility.

In this movie I noticed that the city that they were staying at combines New York City, Hollywood, and some other imperial cities. This movie also makes you want to help animals. It appeals to your emotions in a very sentimental way. This was a good movie for the class and I think we should watch more like it.