Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site tekecs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!tekecs!jeffw
From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Avoiding Anthropomorphism
Message-ID: <5631@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 14:05:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.5631
Posted: Fri Aug 23 14:05:20 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 01:47:11 EDT
References: <42@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 53

> > It's also a mistake to assume that human motivations are different than
> > animal ones. 
> >  
> > If the original poster had left out the unnecessary adjective "human", the
> > posting would have been correct.
> 
> Right.  Okay, let's consider the case of the spouse-murderer.  The female
> black widow spider usually eats her mate.  Therefore, we can relate the wife
> who kills her husband to the black widow's motivation for survival.
> 
> The cuckoo lays her egg in somebody else's nest.  This, of course, can be
> directly related to the motivation for day care and babysitters.
> 
> Many US Americans travel to scenic Niagara Falls for a traditional honeymoon
> trip.  This is transparently like pacific salmon swimming upstream to spawn.
> 
> The kiwi is a shy bird whose habits resemble those of the hacker: only coming
> out at night (it's the only time the shy folk can get to a chinese restaurant
> when it's relatively uncrowded).  Similarly, both will upon occasion lay an 
> unusually large egg for something of its size.
> 
> L S Chabot  

Thank you, Lisa, for proving that men are not the only ones who, after
misunderstanding someone's posting, proceed to take all kinds of cheap
shots at them, generally raising the net-blood pressure in the process.
Your response was insulting and inappropriate, and I'll try to show you why.

First, read the first sentence again. See that word "assume"? Do you know
what it means? Good. Now, tell how it is that you managed to confuse that
word with "think", "believe", or "say", any of which result in a completely
different meaning, one which you apparently think was intended?

Human beings are animals. It is reasonable to expect that they share some
behaviors with other animals, while other behaviors are unique to humans.
Some behaviors which are unique to humans may be an evolutionary descendent
of other animal behaviours. Still others have probably evolved in only
humans. IT IS A MISTAKE TO **ASSUME**, A PRIORI, THAT A HUMAN BEHAVIOR HAS A
DIFFERENT CAUSE THAN AN ANIMAL ONE. To do so encourages the idea that
humans are some sort of special, priveleged species that can stomp on
whatever they want to with impunity. Although, come to think of it, that
does bear some resemblance to your net behavior. 

By the way, there seems to be a rather large egg here with your name on it.
Would you mind coming by and taking it away?


					Jeff Winslow

PS. If your article had been in response to someone who claimed that there
    was essentially no difference between human and animal behavior, it
    would have been appropriate. And I would have laughed all the way
    through.