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Are Humans really the most evil/destructive/most selfish species on earth?
Topic Started: Mar 25 2017, 10:52 AM (1,225 Views)
Cape Leopard
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Heterotrophic Organism
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"Evil" is a rather loaded term. Evil in relation to what?

To assume that non-human animals are moral agents is problematic, especially with insects. We do not know whether other animals are capable of understanding what good and evil is or what those terms mean. What we define as "evil" alien minds may define as "good" in terms of their experience, etc.

There is also a problem in assuming that morality is objective. In most cases, it isn't.
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Jinfengopteryx
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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DarkGricer
Mar 26 2017, 09:50 PM
Humans are inherently among the most evil species on the planet, because we fully understand when something is evil, yet some of us choose to do those things regardless.
Given the small sample size of animals with comparable intellectual capacities (if there are any, even apes and dolphins are hardly more intelligent than human children), this is a fairly meaningless statement. We may be as well regarded as among the best species on this planet and everything in between.
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Thalassophoneus
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Pelagic Killer
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Jinfengopteryx
Mar 27 2017, 01:17 AM
DarkGricer
Mar 26 2017, 09:50 PM
Humans are inherently among the most evil species on the planet, because we fully understand when something is evil, yet some of us choose to do those things regardless.
Given the small sample size of animals with comparable intellectual capacities (if there are any, even apes and dolphins are hardly more intelligent than human children), this is a fairly meaningless statement. We may be as well regarded as among the best species on this planet and everything in between.
If you think of it differently, it an advantage that we can comprehend what is wrong. So while other animals may show racism or perform sport hunting while none tells them anything, we can keep ourselves from doing such stuff. Hence the legislation that appears about such matters as time passes.
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Jinfengopteryx
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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I did not say our capacity of reflection is something bad, just that the rarity of reflection leaves us with not very much to compare human evilness with.
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