Essays
Wanneer
de staat in naam der mensheid zijn politieke vijand wil bestrijden,
dan is dat geen oorlog van de mensheid, maar een oorlog waarvoor een
bepaalde staat tegenover een oorlogsvijand een universeel begrip
probeert ‘bezet’ te houden, zoals men ook vrede, gerechtigheid,
vooruitgang, en civilisatie misbruiken kan, om het voor zich te
kunnen opeisen en het de vijand te kunnen ontzeggen. ‘Mensheid’
is een bijzonder goed bruikbaar ideologisch instrument...”
Carl Schmitt
Boekenbespreking
Persons
will look upon the body as a machine made by the hands of God, which
is incomparably better arranged, and adequate to movements more
admirable than is any machine of human invention. And here I
specially stayed to show that, were there such machines exactly
resembling organs and outward form an ape or any other irrational
animal, we could have no means of knowing that they were in any
respect of a different nature from these animals; but if there were
machines bearing the image of our bodies, and capable of imitating
our actions as far as it is morally possible, there would still
remain two most certain tests whereby to know that they were not
therefore really men. Of these the first is that they could never use
words or other signs arranged in such a manner as is competent to us
in order to declare our thoughts to others: for we may easily
conceive a machine to be so constructed that it emits vocables, and
even that it emits some correspondent to the action upon it of
external objects which cause a change in its organs; for example, if
touched in a particular place it may demand what we wish to say to
it; if in another it may cry out that it is hurt, and such like; but
not that it should arrange them variously so as appositely to reply
to what is said in its presence, as men of the lowest grade of
intellect can do. The second test is, that although such machines
might execute many things with equal or perhaps greater perfection
than any of us, they would, without doubt, fail in certain others
from which it could be discovered that they did not act from
knowledge, but solely from the disposition of their organs: for while
reason is an universal instrument that is alike available on every
occasion, these organs, on the contrary, need a particular
arrangement for each particular action; whence it must be morally
impossible that there should exist in any machine a diversity of
organs sufficient to enable it to act in all the occurrences of life,
in the way in which our reason enables us to act. Again, by means of
these two tests we may likewise know the difference between men and
brutes. For it is highly deserving of remark, that there are no men
so dull and stupid, not even idiots, as to be incapable of joining
together different words, and thereby constructing a declaration by
which to make their thoughts understood; and that on the other hand,
there is no other animal, however perfect or happily circumstanced,
which can do the like. Nor does this inability arise from want of
organs: for we observe that magpies and parrots can utter words like
ourselves, and are yet unable to speak as we do, that is, so as to
show that they understand what they say; in place of which men born
deaf and dumb, and thus not less, but rather more than the brutes,
destitute of the organs which others use in speaking, are in the
habit of spontaneously inventing certain signs by which they discover
their thoughts to those who, being usually in their company, have
leisure to learn their language. And this proves not only that the
brutes have less reason than man, but that they have none at all: for
we see that very little is required to enable a person to speak; and
since a certain inequality of capacity is observable among animals of
the same species, as well as among men, and since some are more
capable of being instructed than others, it is incredible that the
most perfect ape or parrot of its species, should not in this be
equal to the most stupid infant of its kind or at least to one that
was crack-brained, unless the soul of brutes were of a nature wholly
different from ours. And we ought not to confound speech with the
natural movements which indicate the passions, and can be imitated by
machines as well as manifested by animals; nor must it be thought
with certain of the ancients, that the brutes speak, although we do
not understand their language. For if such were the case, since they
are endowed with many organs analogous to ours, they could as easily
communicate their thoughts to us as to their fellows. It is also very
worthy of remark, that, though there are many animals which manifest
more industry than we in certain of their actions, the same animals
are yet observed to show none at all in many others: so that the
circumstance that they do better than we does not prove that they are
endowed with mind, for it would thence follow that they possessed
greater reason than any of us, and could surpass us in all things; on
the contrary, it rather proves that they are destitute of reason, and
that it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of
their organs: thus it is seen, that a clock composed only of wheels
and weights can number the hours and measure time more exactly than
we with all our skin.
Rene Descartes uit deel V van A Discourse on Method
Martha Nussbaum – Een waardig bestaan: Over dierenrechten
Frans de Waal – Een tijd voor empathie
Artwork
De tegenwoordige hemelen en de aarde zijn door hetzelfde woord als een schat weggelegd, ten vure bewaard tegen de dag van het oordeel en van de ondergang van de goddeloze mensen. 2Petrus 3:7
What Are You Looking For? (2013)
© Geere Vroegindeweij