Animal Ethics

The Moral Status of Animals

Human beings usually justify their oppression and exploitation of non-human animals by pointing to supposed empirical differences. Few among the claimed differences is that non-human animals lacks certain psychological capacities, soul, and human genome. Therefore, some humans usually treat non-human animals as things without moral significance. In this article, I will discuss the moral significance of animals by elaborating the aforementioned differences.

What is it that really differentiates human beings morally from non-human animals? Most people will respond by citing some set of psychological capacities which human beings possess but non-human animals lack. For instance, human beings are self-conscious, rational, and autonomous. Human beings also have the ability to use language, and they have a moral sense. However, the problem with that response is that there are some human beings who lack or only possess the aforementioned abilities to the same level as certain animals; such as infants, severely mentally impaired persons, and demented persons. Therefore, if the criteria which determines moral status is the possession of higher psychological abilities, then those human beings who lack or possess the same level of psychological abilities as certain animals should possess equal moral status with those animals.

Life Purpose

The Sleeping Nymph

The title, brief, and location of the art piece
The above marble sculpture named the ‘Sleeping Nymph’ was made by Edward Hodges Baily. The Sleeping Nymph is a beautiful marble sculpture of a female figure which lay down on its side at the entrance of the Plassey House in the University of Limerick. Baily was a famous English sculptor and he was the acknowledged master of ideal and poetic sculptures, he made few different nymph sculptures during his artistic career, but the Sleeping Nymph marble sculpture is spectacular. The sleeping nymph is a motif that entered European art during the renaissance era, and there are speculations that this motif emanated from the ancient Romans. The motif was the idea of a statue of a nymph sleeping in a grotto, near a spring, or a river. Also, there are poems written allegedly describing a nymph sleeping near the fountain, and this motif became influential among artists and poets during the renaissance era.

For the Common Good

Higher Vibration

You will experience a great joy of being when the three elements that form your existence are working in sync on a higher level of vibration. In other words, when your body is on a higher level of harmony with your mind and soul, your mind is having a higher level of perception, and your soul is on a higher level of consciousness.

For Life and Death

Can a human be Helichrysum when
Its casing and fillings are mortal dust
An ephemeral in this hedge maze
As the microbes devours within
Carrion insects munches the surface
Psyche turns a convoluted conundrum

Water and mud? Flesh and bone?
A lightning strike in between
Die to live they said
Live then die they argued

Better live in this intricate reality
Than in a fabricated afterlife
Gracefully aging as a fine wine
Ever fresh from the vine
Living the will of the Divine
Hoping the headstone will be fine.

The Irony of Life

There are people who are blessed with good fortune in life, but they’re not happy. While some people have their life filled with misfortune, but they’re still happy. Looking at these two groups of people, one may infer that the former is ungrateful and insatiable; while the latter is grateful and optimistic.

The Mother-Child Problem

An animal made itself special. Imperfectly perfect being
Whose mind is a clouded sky and its soul a dark poetry

Scared of its own shadow. Ignorant of its own birth and death
Asserting to be the sapience but lacks real enlightenment

You’re humiliating the Mother. Damaging her depth and surface
Claiming to be saving her when indeed you’re her by-product

What will be your fate here? Where is the Mother’s faith in you?
How can you save the Mother when she’s indeed self-sufficient

She’s all around you staring with pity. Weeping in vexation
One of the elements maybe unleashed to clear up then restore.

The Good Life

The New Wealth

If all you have to show are only material wealth and you think you already have it all in this age you are fooling yourself, as all you have are for sale and perishable. To be fulfilled in this age, you must invest in yourself in every aspect possible; human capital is the new wealth which is essential to live a life of human flourishing.