On Mon, 8 May 2000 12:49:38 -0400, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Mon, 8 May 2000, Ken Stuart wrote:
>
>> But it is certainly arbitrary in its manifestation.
>>
>> For example, how many bugs suffered in the construction of the PETA headquarters
>> building?
>
>Do bugs have enough of a nervous system to be capable of
>suffering?  A case can be made that the systems responsible for
>pain reside mainly in the limbic system, which bugs lack
>altogether.  So what reason is there to believe in the suffering
>of bugs?

Pain and suffering are experiences of the mind, not the body.

When you are dreaming, and a large rock smashes your hand, what physiological
processes caused that pain and suffering?

Actually suffering is not the same as pain, as is evidenced by the existence of
BDSM.

Suffering is simply the experience of something happening that is not desired
(which, by the way, is more easily dealt with by eliminating the desire than by
eliminating the circumstances).

So, to posit that other species suffer, we also have to ascertain that they
have:

- Minds
- Self-consciousness
- Personal experiences
- Desires

To my knowledge, the only way to ascertain that would be by cross-species mind
reading...


--
Cheers,

Ken
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