There are many disputes among humanity. The differences in how humans interact correlate with each other in many ways. These two texts, “Man is the Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain and “Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights?” by Frances A. Althaus, show that actions human make are driven by their beliefs. Mark Twain has been studying the traits and dispositions of the “lower-animals” and it is shocking that these “lower-animals” turns out to be the “higher-animals”. He finds the results humiliating because most people believe in the opposite. In Mark Twin’s eyes, the “Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals” seems trivial compared to the “Descent of Man from the Higher Animals”. According to “Man is the Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain, humans are foolish in ways that show they are animals that take action for …show more content…
satisfying their own volition, but not for what is necessary. An example in this text emulates Mark Twain’s observations of an English earl and an anaconda. The earl killed seventy-two buffalos. This would be considered a necessity, but it is a shame that this was just a game. They killed for pleasure and only ate part of one buffalo while the rest were left out to rot. The anaconda on the other hand, was satisfied after devouring one prey among seven. The anaconda did what was needed to survive. This experiment was tried several times with many kinds of anacondas and the result was the same. This is a strong indicator that Man is alone in its distinction that they are cruel. In the text “Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights?” by Frances A. Althaus, the controversy is clearly stated in the title. Female circumcision is the cutting away of women’s genitalia. It’s practiced in Africa and it has been going on for centuries. The reasoning for this practice is primarily for ethnic identity and religious obligation. According to the moral of the practice, it is considered a rite of passage preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage. This is what the culture considers to be right. The question is what is right or wrong. This is an extremely subjective question because it is up to the individual. Something that may be right to one person or a group of people is most definitely not universally correct. The practice of female circumcision is often performed by practitioners with little medical background or knowledge. Female circumcision can cause death or permanent health problems, aside from the excruciating pain. This practice is still existent only because humans decided to stick to their own morals rather than look at what is considered universally “correct” which indirectly correlates with the statement made about the earl from “Man is the Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain. The earl does not see himself as “incorrect” just like how the practitioners do not see themselves as “incorrect”. “Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his ideology isn’t straight”, Mark Twain. Religions may not require female circumcision, but the social context cannot be omitted. Being circumcised ensures a girl’s virginity and the prospective husband can pay a bride price to her family to politically give him the rights to her labor and her children. Mothers regularly check their circumcised daughter to ensure that they are still “pure”. This is contagious to many cultures. Many families are pressured to conform because of everyone else in their society. For example, in a town deep inside Cote d’Ivoire, a Yacouba girl who has not been circumcised is not considered marriageable. Mark Twain stated very clearly that a man will not consider someone their own if they have different beliefs. It certainly is true because girls that resist conformity are looked down upon like they are lesser beings. “Those who resist may be cut by force”, Frances A. Althaus. This may only apply to some families, but this further proves humanity is blinded by conformity. Mark Twain mentions “The Moral Sense” and he firmly believes that this is what makes man the lower animal.
“The Moral Sense” is nothing but a justification to subjective belief systems. He believes that if this part of man was dismissed, man could do no wrong. This is strongly rebutted by Frances A. Althaus’ section “Working for a Change”. The connection may be faint, but upon closer inspection, the points made by each both people are inversely correlated. It is “The Moral Sense” that enables man to do “wrong”, but the endless debate over what is right or wrong is brought up again. What makes a decision good or evil is up to the eye of the beholder which in itself is an individual. “The Moral Sense” makes it so that man could distinguish good and evil. In the section “Working for a Change”, many efforts were made to prevent female circumcision. These attempts were futile because the practice ignored its social and economic context. Even though, they were pointless, it goes to show that humans can progress. Ironically, the foreign intervention strengthened the resolve to be persistent in their practices for some
countries. Humans are interesting. The way a certain group of people interact makes them seem inspirational to some and morally distasteful to others. The disputes can go on for years if not centuries because of their own beliefs and inability to let go of their foolish pride. The result of this can end in cruel acts and war which are historically proven to be undeniably true. The individuality and nationalistic pride is what separates the humans from the "higher animals". This is why humans have transcended generations and will continue.
Humans tend to think of themselves as the best of the best and consider other beings to be pathetic in comparison. In Mark Twain’s satirical essay,”The Lowest Animal,” he argues that in fact, humans are the ones that are the lowest animals, not the superior species as they like to think. Twain utilizes concrete examples, irony, and satire to make his argument that humans are greedy and foolish, making them the lowest animals.
(Hook). Mark Twains comparison of human and animal behavior in "The Damned Human Race" can be identified with by a wide audience. His notoriety as one of the most famous American writers makes his opinion valuable to readers. Twains presentation of the material leads the reader to make factual assumptions on the actions a mankind. He appeals to the reader by focusing on basic ideas and using emotional charged vocabulary to invoke a strong response. Logically comparing conflicting behavior aids Twains argument that humans actions are substandard in comparison to animals. The overall argument of mankind's degradation from animals is successfully argued through the use of emotional appeal and logical reasoning.
Morality derives from the Latin moralitas meaning, “manner, character, or proper behavior.” In light of this translation, the definition invites the question of what composes “proper behavior” and who defines morality through these behaviors, whether that be God, humanity, or an amalgamation of both. Socrates confronted the moral dilemma in his discourses millennia ago, Plato refined his concepts in his Republic, and leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi would commit their life work to defining and applying the term to political reform. Finally, after so many years, Martin Luther King’s “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” reaches a consensus on the definition of morality, one that weighs the concepts of justice and injustice to describe morality as the
In Mark Twain’s essay, “The Damned Human Race,” he uses a sarcastic tone in order to show that humans are the lowest kinds of animals and ar not as socially evolved as they think they are, making his readers want to change. In order to inspire his audience, Twain motivates them by providing specific comparisons between animals and humans. These satiric examples emphasize the deficiencies of the human race and entice them to change for the better.
To begin, “On Morality'; is an essay of a woman who travels to Death Valley on an assignment arranged by The American Scholar. “I have been trying to think, because The American Scholar asked me to, in some abstract way about ‘morality,’ a word I distrust more every day….'; Her task is to generate a piece of work on morality, with which she succeeds notably. She is placed in an area where morality and stories run rampant. Several reports are about; each carried by a beer toting chitchat. More importantly, the region that she is in gains her mind; it allows her to see issues of morality as a certain mindset. The idea she provides says, as human beings, we cannot distinguish “what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’';. Morality has been so distorted by television and press that the definition within the human conscience is lost. This being the case, the only way to distinguish between good or bad is: all actions are sound as long as they do not hurt another person or persons. This is similar to a widely known essay called “Utilitarianism'; [Morality and the Good Life] by J.S. Mills with which he quotes “… actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.';
From top to bottom, John Stuart Mill put forth an incredible essay depicting the various unknown complexities of morality. He has a remarkable understanding and appreciation of utilitarianism and throughout the essay the audience can grasp a clearer understanding of morality. Morality, itself, may never be totally defined, but despite the struggle and lack of definition it still has meaning. Moral instinct comes differently to everyone making it incredibly difficult to discover a basis of morality. Society may never effectively establish the basis, but Mill’s essay provides people with a good idea.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel.
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
Approximately three hundred years separate the earliest of these works, The Prince, from the most recent, Utilitarianism, and a progression is discernible in the concept of morality over this span. Machiavelli does not mention the word "morality," but his description of the trends and ideals of human political interaction allow for a reasonable deduction of the concept. Locke, too, does not use the word, but he does write of "the standard of right and wrong." In contrast, Mill writes explicitly and extensively of morality in its forms, sources, and obligations. A logical starting point in this examination is a look at their relative views of human nature.
Inwardly examining his own nature, man would prefer to see himself as a virtuously courageous being designed in the image of a divine supernatural force. Not to say that the true nature of man is a complete beast, he does posses, like many other creatures admirable traits. As author Matt Ridley examines the nature of man in his work The Origins of Virtue, both the selfish and altruistic sides of man are explored. Upon making an honest and accurate assessment of his character, it seems evident that man is not such a creature divinely set apart from the trappings of selfishness and immorality. Rather than put man at either extreme it seems more accurate to describe man as a creature whose tendency is to look out for himself first, as a means of survival.
Throughout the novel what stands out the most for me in “We The Animals” is that the narrator is gay and his family can’t face the face the fact that the good kid at of all turned that way. When the family read the narrator diary they saw a different perspective on the narrator. In my opinion, that 's an invasion of privacy and should of asked permission. The narrator wrote “ I had written fantasises about the men I met at the bus station, about what I wanted me”. How the narrator felt was his fears dimmed to black and his vision blurred. If somebody ever read my journal without my okay i will be furious and embarrassed because the person read my journal. I know how hard it for him when his family found out, he felt alone and panicked and
Central to any study of the humanities is the human condition – our nature, which has historically shown that it is equally capable of both good and evil deeds – and the problem that arises from it; specifically, why do humans suffer? Many philosophies and religions have their own account for this aspect of humanity, and we find that what the accounts have in common is each explains the human condition in terms that are similar to how that institution of thought explains the true nature of reality.
In this paper I will defend David Hume’s Moral Sense Theory, which states that like sight and hearing, morals are a perceptive sense derived from our emotional responses. Since morals are derived from our emotional responses rather than reason, morals are not objective. Moreover, the emotional basis of morality is empirically proven in recent studies in psychology, areas in the brain associated with emotion are the most active while making a moral judgment. My argument will be in two parts, first that morals are response-dependent, meaning that while reason is still a contributing factor to our moral judgments, they are produced primarily by our emotional responses, and finally that each individual has a moral sense.
Author Yuval Noah Harari has a unique way of reviewing the past fourteen billion years in his monograph Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. His intention for writing this book is mainly to bring up the conversation of the human condition and how it has affected the course of history. In this case, the human condition coincides with the inevitable by-products of human existence. These include life, death, and all the emotional experiences in between. Harari is trying to determine how and why the events that have occurred throughout the lives of Homo Sapiens have molded our social structures, the natural environment we inhabit, and our values and beliefs into what they are today.
DeMello, Margo. Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-animal Studies. New York: Columbia UP, 2012. Print.