Talk:The Businessman Who Came From the Sky/@comment-6532857-20150211024723

I honestly hate the whole "humans eat cattle/pigs/chickens/whatever" thing. It fails on so many philosophical levels, and as someone who's studied philosophy, it's painful to watch.

a). Humans are the only animals with all three of the following: intellect, will, and awareness of the passage of time. The proof that no other animal has intellect is that, while their instincts are amazing, they cannot improve on them (excluding evolution, which has nothing to do with intellect). A rabbit burrow is just the same today as it was thousands of years ago.

b). Take the concept of the three levels of souls. (I'd explain what a "soul" is, but it would take up too much time. Basically, it's what makes you who you are, and we don't understand it to this day.) The most complete "soul" we know of is that of a human: a human can live, search for food, prepare food, think, and has a will (not by will I do not mean will as in a cat's strong will, but in the philosophical term) to overcome his instinct. The second or "lesser" soul is that of animals: while some have basic intellectual capacities, they do not meet all the requirements to have a full soul. So far, humans are the only creatures to have a full soul. The third level is that which is alive, but immobile, and has no instinct/none of the basic abilities of animals. By this we mean plant life.

Aliens which use this excuse are never shown to have a superior soul, because we can't imagine one. (Outside of the idea of an omnipotent, fully perfect being, like the concept of God). The only thing they are shown to have is superior technology. Animals such as pigs are not persons: they do not have a full soul. Note that babies and mentally destroyed people are still persons because the former has a full soul, just not yet developed, and the latter has a full soul, it is merely damaged. Killing a human, therefore, can never be justified by this excuse, or really by any. (the issue of capitol punishment is up for debate, however.)

Stephan222 (talk) 02:47, February 11, 2015 (UTC)