Rooney, James R.

English

WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)

EDITORIALS Empathy or Anthropomorphism? Michael W. Fox, Editor-in-Chief The recently published report of a British working party chaired by the very Reverend Dr. Edward Carpenter (ANIMALS AND ETHICS, Watkins Press, London, UK, 1980, £2.00) contains a revealing and possibly mistaken use of the word an­thropomorphism. I believe that Carpenter et al. mistook empathy for an­thropomorphism when they stated, "anthropomorphism - that is judgements made by man arising from his own subjective experience." I would prefer to assign the word empathy to this meaning. According to Webster's dictionary, to anthropomorphize means "to attribute a human form or personality" to some other being or entity, while empathy is "the imaginative projection of one's own consciousness into another being," or "the capacity for participating in or a vicarious experiencing of another's feelings, volitions or ideas," which is closer to Carpenter et al.'s assumed meaning of anthropomorphism. One would hope that Carpenter et al. have not lost the understanding of or ability to empathize, or do they intend to demean the activity as being mere an­thropomorphizing? No, I believe not, otherwise they would not have created their excellent report. Perhaps they are simply reflecting our culture's increasing lack of contact with feeling and therefore with the true meaning of empathy. Yet how can a person actually project his or her consciousness into another being? Preposterous, impossible, smacks of ESP and mysticism - until it is ex­perienced. Then it need no longer be the subject of debate, for it is not like a belief or an idea. It simply is. When I empathize with an animal or person, that in­dividual's suffering becomes mine, for I experience, through imagining, that suf­fering. But when I anthropomorphize an animal, the reverse occurs: my suffering becomes its suffering because I judge it on the basis of my own subjective ex­perience, as if the animal were a person. Perhaps we should do both when we witness the suffering of animals. The dissonance or discrepancy between empathy and anthropomorphism will decrease as we develop greater understanding of animals, their needs and behavior as well as the role of our own psychology (values, wants, projections, fears, etc.). Then we have compassion and wisdom, this wisdom being the objec­tive knowledge of the animal as distinct from instrumental knowledge acquired to satisfy human utilitarian goals, or mechanistic and reductionist knowledge generated by human curiosity. Perhaps "fellow-feeling" is a more appropriate term for sympathetic resonance with another being, a balanced state of understanding, anthropomorphism and empathy. 346 INT I STUD ANIM PROB 1(6) 1980 I J.R. Rooney Editorial Predation -The Way of Life James R. Rooney, Editorial Advisory Board Considerations of the rights of animals have become fashionable and, one hopes, long-term concerns for people of a wide variety of interests and persua­sions. In addition to the expected ecologists, zoologists, humanitarians, veterinarians and so on, philosophers and theologians are coming to grips with the existence of life other than man. In this editorial I should like to emphasize a basic theory of human-animal interaction which will, I trust, be recognized immediately to be true although generally overlooked in the human-animal "rights" colloquy. The first element of the theory is the simple fact that the universe and this world, as part of that universe, is an ordered system. While our understanding of all of the facets of that order is far from complete, it seems irrefutable that such order does exist. The philosophical term 'cosmology' defines an ordered universe. What we loosely call "Nature" is, in fact, that portion of cosmology which applies to this earth. Nature, then, is the earth as an ordered system. Within that context there appear to be three major laws: 1 )Survival of an individual life takes precedence over the survival of another individual. 2)Survival of the species takes precedence over the survival of the in­dividual.3)Survival of life takes precedence over the survival of the species.It appears that there is a single operator, a single theory, which subsumes allthree of these laws: predation, the basic interaction among all forms of life fromthe least to the most complex. The food chain is hard theory, indeed. It is unnecessary to belabor the obvious role of predation in the first two laws. The third law has not, perhaps, been clearly stated previously. The extinc­tion of species over the earth's history shows the law at work. An excellent and provocative exhibit in the Museum of Science in Boston also makes the point. One aquarium contains unpolluted water and the variety of marine life as it may have been in the Boston harbor years ago. The second aquarium is appropriately polluted for the harbor today. While there are fewer numbers and varieties of species, there is still life. Indeed, it would be difficult to find anyplace on this planet, a nook or crevice so foul, so noxious, that something alive was not in residence. So far two elements of the theory I am developing have been identified: life on earth as part of an ordered system and predation as the operator within that ordered system. However, the theory remains incomplete. What is the ordered system, merely big fish eating small fish and being eaten by yet bigger fish? We yearn for some purpose, some goal, some ends for these means. The best, perhaps, we can do to satisfy that yearning, omitting metaphysics, romanticism and theological speculation, is to appeal to another time-honored INT J STUD ANIM PROB 1(6) 1980 347 I J.R. Rooney Editorial Iconcept: equilibrium. While there may be questions about equilibria in the subatomic world and the cosmic world, there is no reason to doubt, in our world, that equilibrium is the sine qua non: for every action there is a reaction. Equilibrium does not tell us why; it does not provide a fixed goal, a god, or a good. It just is, and that is what we have to go on just now. Struggle, violence and ugliness will be with us at the millenium because the theory of this earth, the governing cosmology, is that of an ordered system, and that system is ordered because of predatory interrelationships operating around the balanci_ng concept, equilibrium. Remove predation, and there is no order, no equilibrium and ... no life. Humans are, historically and presently, the most efficient predators that have ever existed on the earth. Humans, however, are not successful predators because they are destroying the host, the living and nonliving earth, upon which they prey. Human predatory efficiency is based on a single element, the human in­tellect. The intellect has no natural enemy other than another intellect. There is only one conceivable way to restore the earthly equilibrium that man has so seriously disturbed, and that is by the use of intellect. We have thought ourselves into disequilibrium and have no choice but to think our way out of it again. There are heartening signs that this process is already underway. It is hoped that the formulation provided will help in the structuring and ordering of the pro­cess. 348 INT J STUD ANIM PROB 1(6) 1980 NEWS!!!!! REVIEW COMPANION ANIMALS Boyhood Cruelty Toward Animals Emmanuel Kant argued that cruelty to animals should be avoided, not because such behavior is intrin­sically wrong, but because it might predispose the perpetrator to behave in a sadistic fashion toward human beings as well. Although there are a number of anecdotal stories suppor­ting this position, relatively few detailed studies of the phenomenon have emerged. The studies that have been done have focused on the ap­parent link between animal cruelty and enuresis (bedwetting) and fire­setting, rather than between animal cruelty and aggressive behavior toward other people (Am / Psych 122:1431, 1966; / Psych Law 2:45, 1974; J Forens Sci 24:240, 1979). A recent paper by Dr. Alan R. Felthous (Child Psych Hum Dev 10:169-177, 1980) explores some of the relationships between childhood cruelty to animals and assaultive behavior directed at humans. Out of a population sample of 345 male psychiatric inpatients, 53 who fell in­to the most aggressive category denied repetitive cruelty to animals in childhood, while a further 18 highly aggressive individuals admitted to a history of repeated torture of dogs and cats. All but one of the 18 tor-INT J STUD ANIM PROB 1(6) 1980 tured cats, but only five tortured dogs. This disproportionately higher level of cat torture mirrors a long cultural history of persecution of cats in western societies. As expected, most subjects in the animal cruelty group had histories compatible with a high level of ag­gressiveness against people. How­ever, the animal cruelty group re­ported a significantly higher inci­dence of paternal neglect and/or abuse (either an alcoholic father or prolonged separation from the father). Other studies also indicate that the absence of a father figure is an important element in the etiology of cruel behavior toward companion animals (Child Psych Hum Dev 2:70, 1971 ), a stable father being con­sidered influential to a boy's develop­ing capacity to control and channel aggressive impulses. LABORATORY ANIMALS Scientists Evaluate Alternatives Of the many techniques which have been put forward as possible al­ternatives to laboratory animals, tissue culture and computer model­ing stand to the fore. Although exag­gerated claims have been made for the predictive power of both techni­ques, their potential for investigating biological mechanisms and reducing the need to use laboratory animals is undisputed. Three papers have ap­peared recently in scientific journals which explore the status of these two alternatives. The Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) published a paper by Dr. M. lute of Pfizer Research Laboratories (A TLA Abstracts 8 [1):18, 1980) listing some of the ways in which computer models have been used in drug screening and in safety evaluation. One such model developed by the Genesee Computer Center, Inc. (US) 349 

Predation - The Way of Life

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Predation - The Way of Life

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