Peace

[henry quirk]

"The difference is: humans have no instincts, animals do."


We have instincts. Unlike dogs, however, we can choose to ignore them at least part of the time.

#

"I would argue that humans have no love either, except as extensions of our biological underpinnings -- that we share in common with many other mammals. Love your mate. Your parents. Your social group. Your offspring. All motivated by basic evolutionary pressures."


Only the human individual can love someone outside of parents, social group, offspring. You could argue the individual can do so only because he or she adopts the loved one into one of those groups, which kinda supports my point. Only a human individual can choose to adopt someone as parent, or into a social group, or as offspring. Only the distinctive 'I' that, insofar as we know, is unique to the human individual can love in that way.

#

"Only bloviators like Henry here think you need high-falutin' language to qualify for love."


Muddled thinking doesn't look any prettier when topped with useless insult, pie.

Shame on you.

#

"What sources do you have to back up your opinion?"


The same, best, source you have in determining the unique nature of love and how love is the action of the human individual and no other: myself, yourself, pie's self, Jim's self.

I can talk with you about love...we can dicker about its nature.

Find me the dog, the platypus, the cat, the chimp, the garden slug that can do the same.

You can't.

Why?

Because in all those cases, the animals haven't sufficient complexity, or complexity of a very specific kind, to, first, be 'self' aware and, second, to feel in the self-reflective way required to love.

Again: if you wanna generalize love to include 'familiarity coupled with good feeling coupled with physical pleasure' then be my guest.

Hell: I’ll even concede ''familiarity coupled with good feeling coupled with physical pleasure' is a kind of love, but a poor love as compared to what human individuals can feel and choose for one another.

#

"Truly, I do not think it can be "proven" either way"


And: you may be right. However: conversations, particularly those labeled’ philosophy', tend not to go anywhere if everyone just agrees to disagree.

For myself: I think I'm on firm footing with my analysis.

#

"but I believe they do."


As you should, Classic!

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"Only bloviators like Henry here think you need high-falutin' language to qualify for love"


Actually: what I'm arguing is that to love, one needs to be an 'I'. Along with 'I'ness comes language as tool for naming the world and making it one's own. Language is the esoteric version of the hand. The hand allows (demands!) manipulation of the world; so does language.

#

Pie, you ought to take this, 'The fun thing about evolution (and science in general) is that it happens whether you believe in it or not.', out of your signature line. It’s obvious you don't believe a word of it. An appeal to the authority of anecdote is not science.

#

I wrote: 'Actually, as 'we' use and understand love, no, your dog doesn't.'

Classic responded: 'ok, prove it'


Two things:

1-I made no claim, Pie did. The burden is on her, or her proxy, to provide evidence for her claim that her "dog…sure as hell understands it."

2-How is am I to prove the existence of what is absent?

I can point to the absence of evidence for God and still this doesn't prove deity's absence.

I can point to the seemingly unique nature of the human individual ('I'ness), and how that nature expresses in that most unique action, love. I can point to the apparent lack of 'I'ness in virtually all other life, and how this lack precludes love in a dog.

I can point to the human individual: the self-referencing, esoteric-seeking, instinct-denying, agent, and ask, are dogs like us?

And still: this won't prove to your satisfaction that only the human individual loves.

#

"my past experience with training dogs and having them for so many years leads me to my opinion on the subject."


This could mean one of two things: you are far better schooled on the possibility of dog love than me, or, you're far too close to, and have far too much affection for, dogs to be objective.

Who's to know which?

[henry quirk]

"Interesting. Isn't this the same henry that started a thread about 'peace' without defining what he meant by 'peace'?"

Nice try, Beastmaster, but, you know as well as I the difference between uinintended imprecision in statement and an intended 'terms open to interpretation' question.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

"Interesting. Isn't this the same henry that started a thread about 'peace' without defining what he meant by 'peace'?"

Nice try, Beastmaster, but, you know as well as I the difference between uinintended imprecision in statement and an intended 'terms open to interpretation' question.

One is unintended. One is intended. Both result in imprecision.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

"Only bloviators like Henry here think you need high-falutin' language to qualify for love."

Muddled thinking doesn't look any prettier when topped with useless insult, pie.

Shame on you.

I believe I used the term correctly.

To bloviate means "to speak pompously and excessively" or "to expound ridiculously". A colloquial verb coined in the United States, it is commonly used with contempt to describe the behavior of politicians, academics, pundits or media "experts," sometimes called bloviators, who hold forth on subjects in an arrogant, tiresome way.

[henry quirk]

This, of course, means the two aren’t synonymous.

As I said up-thread: 'It's just the beginning of a goddamned conversation wherein folks are encouraged to offer interpretations. The hope: a lengthy enough thread will evolve away from the opening question and self-sustain based on the give and take of the participants.'

And: I do believe I have exactly what I wanted.

Now: go play with Kodo and Podo like a good boy, or, trundle down to the Unitarian Fellowship and hob-nob with the other lukewarms…

#

"I believe I used the term correctly."


Then: I leave you with your subjective assessment since subjective assessment is all it is.

One woman's 'arrogant, tiresome way' is one man's plain speech.

Sorry if you're not up to keeping up.

And: for the record, using the right (as you see it) word doesn't negate insult, which was your intent.

Can't you at least be honest enough to admit you were levying an insult, or haven't you the clarity to see even that?

#

Now: I head home and feed my brother's unloving bio-automata (his cats) and spend the evening with a delightful bundle of loving 'I'ness (my nephew).

If you can't tell the difference between the two, then, you have my sympathies...

[dar512]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

And: I do believe I have exactly what I wanted.

So you started a thread on peace so that you could get a thread on dog and cat sapience?

You're good.

Originally Posted by henry quirk

Now: go play with Kodo and Podo like a good boy, or, trundle down to the Unitarian Fellowship and hob-nob with the other lukewarms…

Um. What?

No. Really. What?