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.