THE MECHANICAL VIEW
If we view animals in the context of the evolution from chemicals, through primitive life forms, and eventually to us human beings; then it is possible to see all life forms as essentially just complex chemicals. From this assumption it is a short step to seeing all animals, including human beings, as machines.
Once we take that view, then there is nothing special about animals: they are just another collection of complex material-
Such objectivity would presumably mean that we should be no more upset by incinerating an animal that has died in a medical experiment, than scrapping an old car. So what connects this view with all the others? . . .
Then is
← that
same as
this?→
Or is
← that
same as
this?→