QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 02:34 PM)
Very solid post, and not simply because I agree with you for the most part, but because it is a well-reasoned and well-thought out response and conclusion.
The one point I do question is the concluding statement of your first paragraph.
From a purely philosophical standpoint, I am not sure why it is more of a tragedy for one human being to die than hundreds of dogs. I am not in the business of weighing the lives of one creature against another, or in this case, hundreds of creatures again one, but why is it such an easy conclusion for humans to judge the value of one species against another? What are the criterion for making such a judgment?
Anyways, not looking to turn this into a philosophical bs discussion that gets us nowhere. It's just the idea that humans make the immediate assumption that a human's life is so much more valuable than the life of another creature seems arrogant to me.
Speciesism 101