"A
human being is a part of the whole, called by us
"Universe," a part limited in time and space. He
experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest, a kind of
optical delusion of his consciousness. This
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting
us to our personal desires and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to
free ourselves from this prison by widening our
circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the
striving for such achievement is in itself a part
of the liberation and a foundation for inner
security." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Source: Mathematical
Circles
Understand the role of literature and art in ethics
generally and advancing animal rights specifically; become aware
of the advantages and disadvantages of analogies such as that
between the Holocaust and slaughterhouses.
[2A2]
ETHICS[ The second goal of the required leadership/ethics flag
courses -- learn to make real-life ethical choices -- is closely
related to the core purpose of the University of Texas, to transform
lives for the benefit of society. It is also one of the basic
education requirements of U.T.: "have experience in thinking
about moral and ethical problems." Our ethics goals are
[2A2a] To experience by analogy a little of ethical
dilemma presented by Anti-Semitism, especially the Holocaust.
[2A2b] To experience by analogy a little of ethical
dilemma presented by racism, especially slavery.
[2A2c]
To experience more directly the ethical dilemmas
presented by speciesism, especially cruelty to animals.
[2A2d] To become aware of real-life ethical choices made daily by all of us involving cruelty
to animals.
[2A2e] To return to the traditional college goals of developing character
and conscience.
[2A2f] To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion, tolerance,
and the sympathetic imagination.
TODAY'S TOPICS :Use this novel to
ONLY CONNECT AND HAMMER INTO UNITY everything we have learned since August about animals and ethics. Special focus: the value and validity of analogies such as those between
the Holocaust and slaughterhouses in this novel and
elsewhere. In other words, we are testing how well the approach in the course description works for you:
Course Description:
Because our primary approach to ethics will
be emotive (compassion) rather than philosophical (rights), emotional
literacy will also be one of our goals. Two of our basic ethics questions are
[1] What would I have done about the Holocaust if I had been in Germany and
known what was going on at the time? [2] What would I have done about slavery
if I had been in east Texas and known what was going on at the time? We are trying to learn ethics experientially. In this case, your assignment is to become an actor, acting as if the analogies are basically true. This "willing suspension of disbelief," as Coleridge put it, is essential to the effectiveness of all novels, plays, movies, etc. In this case, We temporarily relinguish our disbelief in order to experience a little of what that person might have thought and felt who lived by a concentration camp or a plantation supported by slavery. We know that a comparison is not an equation, but as we try to accept the connection, as we mount our defenses against the analogies between factory farming and the Holocaust, we can thus consider the possibility that we would have mounted similar defenses had we been that person who lived by a concentration camp or a plantation supported by slavery.
Of course it is all too easy to be ethical about events that happened long ago. To make
these questions come alive for us now, we will make our ultimate ethical goal to
“widen the circle of compassion,” as Einstein put it, not only to all kinds of people but also other species. Analogies between
factory farming, slavery, and Nazi concentration camps made by various writers and philosophers, and especially by the shocking documentary Earthlings, will challenge us to become more mindful of ethical decisions we make daily about food, clothing, entertainment, etc., as well as the ethical decisions involved in nonmedical
animal research on this campus. Whatever we decide, the goal is to become aware of the importance of practical ethics in daily life.
recall DFW's commencement speech:
one "truth you shall know" is that you are not just your default settings, you can break free of them:
you have choices, such as your daily ethical choices about food, clothing, entertainment, etc.; because you have choices you are FREE of your default settings, FREE to create your new, more authentic, consistent, ethical self.................
possible topics:
IQ: the nature, value, and limits of reason; universalism; analogy vs. equation;
EQ: the heart, feeling, sympathy, joy;
Gandhi;
TODAY'S
REQUIRED READING: course anthology:
CATS
904-905 Rilke, "Panther"
906-907 Hughes Intro
908 "Jaguar"
909 "Jaguar II"
910 Rilke, "Black Cat"
911-913 Cat Sense
ANCIENT WORSHIP OF CATS
914-916 "In Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome," Dorothy Stuart
917-921 "The Cat in Ancient Egypt"
922-923 "What Happens to Cats," Herodotus
924 Siamese Temple Cats ; The Origin of the Cat in Islam
REVIEW,
CONNECT, HAMMER INTO UNITY: your self and the
animal kingdom, your experiences of the relationship
between animals and us, your relationship to the term
"Earthling"
11-19.Carnism and Ideology;Discussion Leader:Why We love Dogs, Eat Pigs, Wear CowsThe Face on Your Plate;Quiz in class."Best and Worst"for second half of alphabet? 948-976 "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows"977-988 The Face on Your Plate
11-24P2final copy due;pkwmovies;optional blogs to follow
11-29Sunday: blogs for 20-2 assignments due by 11:59 PM Sunday.
