It is OK to be an unintelligent, uncreative being with the emotional regulatory skills of a kitten... as long as you are as cute as a kitten. But what about unintelligent, uncreative and UGLY creatures?
I deal with plenty of these on a daily basis. Here is what I think:
1. It's always better to be better: Better to be smarter, better to be creative, better to be emotionally attuned to yourself and others, better to be cute. (This is semantically inevitable - a very firm position to take. I'll grant that someone, somewhere, might have strange definitions of words like "better" and "cute" which don't clearly equate one with the other, but I'm going to ignore them until they show up.)
2. But all else being equal, it's probably better to fulfill your responsibilities. Now, this point is extremely difficult to prove (for example, what if morality doesn't exist)? So if my argument has a weakness, it's probably here.
3. Given point #2, if you've taken on a responsibility to some creature of whatever species, it doesn't matter whether they lack *any* conceivable virtue; your responsibility toward them still dictates your behavior toward them.
I will grant it's much more pleasant to be responsible towards people and animals if you can say something - anything - nice about them. My guess is that whoever provides the last meal for convicted criminals on death row probably has a crummy job.
Family members are probably rather safe. But people who have become pets of a certain political ideology are much less so: Those who are considered pets today can easily become Someone Else's Problem tomorrow.
It is OK to be an unintelligent, uncreative being with the emotional regulatory skills of a kitten... as long as you are as cute as a kitten. But what about unintelligent, uncreative and UGLY creatures?
I deal with plenty of these on a daily basis. Here is what I think:
1. It's always better to be better: Better to be smarter, better to be creative, better to be emotionally attuned to yourself and others, better to be cute. (This is semantically inevitable - a very firm position to take. I'll grant that someone, somewhere, might have strange definitions of words like "better" and "cute" which don't clearly equate one with the other, but I'm going to ignore them until they show up.)
2. But all else being equal, it's probably better to fulfill your responsibilities. Now, this point is extremely difficult to prove (for example, what if morality doesn't exist)? So if my argument has a weakness, it's probably here.
3. Given point #2, if you've taken on a responsibility to some creature of whatever species, it doesn't matter whether they lack *any* conceivable virtue; your responsibility toward them still dictates your behavior toward them.
I will grant it's much more pleasant to be responsible towards people and animals if you can say something - anything - nice about them. My guess is that whoever provides the last meal for convicted criminals on death row probably has a crummy job.
Family members are probably rather safe. But people who have become pets of a certain political ideology are much less so: Those who are considered pets today can easily become Someone Else's Problem tomorrow.