Comments on: Is a DOLPHIN a Being with a Name Who Can Name? http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/2013/02/26/all-darwins-beings-with-names-who-can-name/ A First Things Blog Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:57:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: jason taylor http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/2013/02/26/all-darwins-beings-with-names-who-can-name/comment-page-1/#comment-34101 jason taylor Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:37:56 +0000 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/?p=10927#comment-34101 Hey? Maybe dolphins really are merfolk, or the ghosts of dead sailors?

]]> By: CJ Wolfe http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/2013/02/26/all-darwins-beings-with-names-who-can-name/comment-page-1/#comment-33929 CJ Wolfe Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:38:18 +0000 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/?p=10927#comment-33929 Almost half of Alasdair MacIntyre’s book “Dependent Rational Animals” is dedicated to dolphins, arguing that they are in fact rational. Sharp lines between non-rational animals and rational animals don’t really make sense from either a modern scientific standpoint or an Aristotelian philosophical standpoint, since Dolphins and other animals operate on reasons for action (Aristotle would call that “phronesis”; he explicitly says bees have it).

This in no way takes away from human dignity of course, since humans have capacities that others don’t even if there isn’t a sharp line between non-rational and rational animals. It’s actually very important from an ethical standpoint to remember the ANIMALITY of every human being, and not reduce human dignity to the presence of a certain state of affairs with a certain number of brainwaves

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