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How would this hypothetical person behave?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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Part of life is coming to terms with your destruction of the things around you.
With a single step you likely extinguish millions of life forms, from bacteria to creatures like insects. Does this mean that we should never take a step, lest we crush something with our weight? Or plants which have developed natural defenses to not be eaten, and yet we harvest them relentlessly to eat.
Should we not grow food because eating is harmful to the plants? Should we not move because we may harm those underfoot? Now, we can ask this question after deliberating morality and mortality, but what about creatures that cause the same damages we do without the critical thought - when a pig or cow walks around it creates the same risk of danger for creatures underfoot. Do we have responsibility to prevent that pain? Are any creatures at fault for simply existing?
This probably isn't exactly what you were looking at but I've been thinking about this sort of stuff for a long time. That said part of existence is that we can only mitigate the pain we create simply by existing.
That is actually pretty close to how I was thinking about it. I'm just wondering if there is a balance to it all that we can find. Like if existing necessarily causes harm how much of that is necessary and how much of it is exploitation.
I mean the closest philosophical position that I've seen in relation to it is peter singer's position but that seems exclusive to human-human relations (Edit 3: apparently also animal liberation).
Edit: Also if I was to focus on invasive species again currently we say that because something is an invasive species we should kill or stop them because they are causing damage to the existing ecosystem. Which makes sense to me it is reducing the diversity and possibilities for that space but on an individual level you would be saying that oh your existence is harming other creatures in the area so we need to kill you to make space for others which seems somewhat inhumane?
So the question sort of translates to what level of focus are you judging the value of something at?
Edit 2: Another thing I have against peter singer's position is that it's too utilitarian
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I think you just do what you can and recognize that there are things you can't do. That doesn't mean that you pretend it isn't happening, but you acknowledge that you can't be a perfect preserver of all life in every single second. You can try to avoid harming things while knowing that you won't always succeed, and while understanding that sometimes you need to act even when it does cause harm, and just try to minimize it. You're probably going to crush a lot of microscopic stuff, you may even crush quite a few small insects from time to time, but you can keep something of an eye out and not do it intentionally without a good reason.
The best you can do is exercise the empathy that you're able to, try to encourage others to do the same, and let go of the parts you can't really control. You can think of it like hygiene on an outward level. Take a shower, wash your hands, brush your teeth, change your clothes, but are you going to throw your shoes away every time they touch dirt? Are you going to wash your hands every time you touch a surface? Take dozens of showers per day every time you sweat the tiniest bit? Wash your clothes again and again before even wearing them because the air itself isn't perfectly sterile? Hopefully not.
Do your best, but exercise moderation.