Do you believe humans are a greater existence than other animals? Why or why not?

[HawkPerception]

Yes

No

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Yes, in that we are human beings. So we have to value our species above all others in the same way a dog should value dogs above human beings. I don't subscribe to ethical frameworks that aren't species-centric.

It is not unethical to me if a lion initiates an attack on a man, for example. That's a lion being a lion and lions are neither capable of valuing other species more than their own nor should they be expected to do so even if they could.

It is unethical if a man initiates an attack on another man being both capable of valuing members of his own species and optimizing benefits to himself, to his loved ones, to his community, nation, the entirety of his species by refraining to initiate attacks on other members of his species.

If we run into some hypothetical extraterrestrials that are superior to us in almost every way imaginable, then I still think we must necessarily value our existence more than theirs. That doesn't mean we shouldn't cooperate, serve them, possibly even give our individual lives for them, but at the end of the day, we must value our own collective existence more than theirs.

We're not being human and serving the responsibilities of being human otherwise as I see it if we prioritize the existence of other species above our own.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Anything else is inhuman as I see it. When I see philosophers subscribing to philosophies like antinatalism which sees it as ideal to extinct the human species, they're trying to evaluate morality in a species-independent way which, from my perspective, has them donning the shoes of gods. They want to be like gods and judge what's good for the universe divorced from their own humanity.

And I'd say that's as "evil" as it humanly gets to want to extinct our own species. That's as great of a betrayal of our humanity as it possibly gets. We aren't supposed to be judging what's good for the universe independently of ourselves. We're too fallible for that; we lack the omniscience. The best we can do is prioritize ourselves and not betray ourselves.

We can be kind to other species; I'd even say we should be. It's generally to our own benefit. Yet we should never betray our own by prioritizing the existence of other species above our own.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I'm not speaking from the standpoint of epistemological absolutism that the existence of our species is more valuable than any other. I'm refuting epistemological absolutism in favor of species relativism. The best we can possibly do as fallible creatures is to place higher value on our collective existence than that of other species. That's all we can best do with our knowledge and evolutionary programming.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I'm also not speaking from any egotistical or arrogant view of our species. I'm not saying human existence should be more valuable to human beings because human beings are better than other species. I'm saying human existence should be more valuable to human beings because they are human beings. That's all there is to it. It's actually the humble view; it's the people who assume they know better than the rest of us who think other species have greater value.

[itsclearlynicholas]

Yes because we are aware of our deaths and because there could, could either be a hallucination afterlife or an actual afterlife, potentially someday or just unawares darkness

[FreyaRed]

It's about consciousness that determines value of a life form. Humans are more aware about their existence than lemurs, lemurs have higher level of self awareness than insects... etc. at the end stand bacteria and other single call organism which we kill in thousands while swallowing our own saliva or wash our hands.

[IslaTheWitch]

no, our life has the same value as any other. We have too much unjustified pride in us... and many of us believe we are special... and because of it better and more worthy...

but those special and more worthy polluted our air and poisoned our water...

[DizzyDesii]

I feel that humans should not value an animals life over their own. But then i sometimes think about the Noah and the ark story and how people were punished but at least 2 of every animal was brought aboard

[NathanDavis]

we would be nothing without bacteria... that's the truth

[Likes2drive]

We’re an intelligent species with a will so that puts us above animals and create civilizations

[OtterMan68]

Humans create art.
Humans are capable of romantic love.

[LadyLa820]

We are just more evolved animals lol.

[strateguy632]

greater potential in hands and minds

[exitseven]

Some humans do. Not everyone though.

[Peridot25]

Fuck no