Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
From: ohgs@chatham.demon.co.uk (Oliver Sparrow)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!demon!chatham.demon.co.uk!ohgs
Subject: Re: Why I Don't Eat Faces: A Neuroethical Argument for Vegetarianism
Distribution: world
References: <396p01$i3i@network.ucsd.edu>
Organization: Royal Institute of International Affairs
Reply-To: ohgs@chatham.demon.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.27
Lines: 37
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 08:32:39 +0000
Message-ID: <783851559snz@chatham.demon.co.uk>
Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk

We do eat apes and dolphins; and everything else that creeps and crawls,
grows and resupinates. Humans are omnivorous; and our dietary needs are
circumscribed by well-understood needs. We share with the bullbull bird,
the guinea pig and the fruit eating bat an obligation to consume ascorbic
acid, for example, a requirement unique in the animal kingdom; and this is,
no doubt, the result of a diet once rich in fruit. That this demonstrates
that we eat *only* fruit is clearly incorrect.

As to our empathy with food: lions clearly *love* their prey. They spend
hours grooming it, messing with its fur when they are well fed. As a child in
Africa, I recall spending hours watching the leopard which lived in a kopje
a mile from out home play with its prey, like a cat. It had strong emotions
about its food which went well beyond rumbling stomachs and low blood sugar;
and those emotions were suffiiently empathic for it to be able to anticipate
what would wind the duiker or rabbit up, what would most terrify the baby 
baboon with which it was toying. I have seen a lion play with a tortoise for
several hours, eltting it waddle towards its domestic crack in the rock and
then flipping it away.

We are to a degree hard wired as to what we regard as food. Nevertheless, both
dexterity and cognition are likely to have evolved because we needed to be 
excellent at recognising, finding, storing and anticipating the arrival of
food. When one sets out to prove a new food product, there are rules to be
followed: that certain textures go with certain colours, that virtually no
food is blue; that over-saturated colours are repulsive and that fractal
patterns are attractive. Small products should be displayed in bright colours
and big proiducts in muted ones. These are general rules which apply across
cultures; but much more is cultural, and what sells in Japan (such as lobster
eaten live) will not play in - let us say - Maine. Are we hard wired not to
eat people? Visit the Vanatu chain or the Toba region of Sumatra and ask 
about the dietary habits of the last generation. Ask Japanese soldiers who 
got lost during WWII in the area!
 
_________________________________________________

  Oliver Sparrow
  ohgs@chatham.demon.co.uk
