Me cuesta horrores elegir una sola frase de este libro, que me tiene abducido.
Recently there has been a reaction against racialism and patriotism, and a tendency to substitute the whole human species as the object of our fellow feeling. This humanist broadening of the target of our altruism has an interesting corollary, which again seems to buttress the ‘good of the species’ idea in evolution. The politically liberal, who are normally the most convinced spokesmen of the species ethic, now often have the greatest scorn for those who have gone a little further in widening their altruism, so that it includes other species. If I say that I am more interested in preventing the slaughter of large whales than I am in improving housing conditions for people, I am likely to shock some of my friends.
The feeling that members of one’s own species deserve special moral consideration as compared with members of other species is old and deep. Killing people outside war is the most seriously regarded crime ordinarily committed. The only thing more strongly forbidden by our culture is eating people (even if they are already dead). We enjoy eating members of other species, however. Many of us shrink from judicial execution of even the most horrible human criminals, while we cheerfully countenance the shooting without trial of fairly mild animal pests. Indeed we kill members of other harmless species as a means of recreation and amusement. A human foetus, with no more human feeling than an amoeba, enjoys a reverence and legal protection far in excess of those granted to an adult chimpanzee. Yet the chimp feels and thinks and-according to recent experimental evidence-may even be capable of learning a form of human language. The foetus belongs to our own species, and is instantly accorded special privileges and rights because of it. Whether the ethic of ‘speciesism’, to use Richard Ryder’s term, can be put on a logical footing any more sound than that of ‘racism’, I do not know. What I do know is that it has no proper basis in evolutionary biology.
The muddle in human ethics over the level at which altruism is desirable-family, nation, race, species, or all living tilings-is mirrored by a parallel muddle in biology over the level at which altruism is to be expected according to the theory of evolution. Even the group-selectionist would not be surprised to find members of rival groups being nasty to each other: in this way, like trade unionists or soldiers, they are favouring their own group in the struggle for limited resources. But then it is worth asking how the groupselectionist decides which level is the important one. If selection goes on between groups within a species, and between species, why should it not also go on between larger groupings? Species are grouped together into genera, genera into orders, and orders into classes. Lions and antelopes are both members of the class Mammalia, as are we. Should we then not expect lions to refrain from killing antelopes, ‘for the good of the mammals’? Surely they should hunt birds or reptiles instead, in order to prevent the extinction of the class. But then, what of the need to perpetuate the whole phylum of vertebrates?
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.
Te cuesta porque es un libro cojonudo 😀
Aquest llibre és brutal!
A mi em va fer obrir els ulls davant de moltes coses, i en certa manera em va ajudar a replantejar-te certes creences.
És un tio collonut, i si t’interessa el tema, llegeix-te algun dels assaigs que ha fet sobre la religió, l’ateïsme i la fe. Sön altament recomanables
Te pasas el dia leyendo?? Llevas ya como 4 libros, no??
Jo realment us admiro. No sé com podeu llegir tostón en anglès.
«Me cuesta horrores elegir una sola frase de este libro, que me tiene abducido.»
A mí me cuesta horrores entenderlas, a veure si poses un enllaç a un bon traductor.
Juanito Paletoman
Rinze, de momento lo estoy disfrutando, y no creo que decaiga.
Gemma, el vaig comprar en oferta junt amb el The God Delusion, així que tinc lectura per estona.
Raquel, creo que sí, desde que vengo al trabajo en autobús. Aunque aún no he terminado el de The Restaurant at the End of the World, pero me queda poco.
Joan, no hi ha bons traductors, al menys dels automàtics. Com a molt puc buscar (o millor recomenar-te llegir) l’edició castellana.
¡Bones notícies! He trobat una edició en pdf en castellà.
Poso la traducció d’aquest post:
jeje, moltes gràcies. Veig en un post més a dalt que ha fet assaigs sobre ateisme i fe. Un dels meus temes favorits a les tertúlies. Afegit a «favoritos»
Ta clar que t´has de quedar amb aquesta frase.
for the good of the mammals’?
Joan, crec que «The God Delusion» ho han traduït com «El espejismo de Dios». Aquest el va treure fa un any, com a molt, i està en el top 10 de totes les llibreríes angleses.
Tendríamos que organizar un club de lectores y hacer tertulias online 🙂
Gracias por las recomendaciones.
Nos vemos pronto ? 🙂
Paco, pronto no ha escrito nunca en este blog, usease que difícilmente te contestará si os veis o no (queda inaugurado el parida’s contest)
Yo no he escrito nunca, pero sí que leo el blog. Nos vemos, Paco.
Hombre!
Hombre, Pronto! Ya era hora de que te pasases por aquí!