From: Allin Cottrell (cottrell@WFU.EDU)
Date: Wed Nov 22 2006 - 20:06:57 EST
On Wed, 22 Nov 2006, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > But the point has shifted. Allin and Paul wanted to establish a > general model of animal slavery with the human practice as just one > example. Speaking for Allin, he wanted to problematize the assumption that the "enslavement" (with scare quotes) of one species of ant by another _must_ be totally different from the enslavement of one set of humans by another. Rakesh responded with talk of "enslavement" of iron filings, as a putative reductio ad absurdum. This shows that he didn't bother to look at the grounds for talk of "enslavement" among ants in the scientific work I cited. Nobody is suggesting the "X causes Y to behave in manner M" translates into "X has enslaved Y", for arbitrary X and Y. Insofar as the retort was that this is an intra-species matter in the case of human slavery, Paul's thought experiment concering the enslavement of Neanderthals by Sapiens (which didn't happen so far as we kow, but might have happened if things had gone a bit differently), seems apposite to me. To repeat Paul's question: Would that have made a difference of principle, versus the enslavement of Africans by other Sapiens? Allin Cottrell
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