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From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,rec.birds,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Intelligent Parrots, or Self-deception and Gullibility.
Message-ID: <2200@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 31 Mar 88 01:43:58 GMT
References: <1988Mar4.162334.18184@utzoo.uucp> <4299@blia.BLI.COM> <2495@geac.UUCP> <4400@blia.BLI.COM>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
Organization: Citicorp/TTI, Santa Monica
Lines: 20

In article <4400@blia.BLI.COM> heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon) writes:
.I still wonder what it is about humans that makes us want to be
.different and better than other animals?  We are certainly more similar
.to other animals than we are different from them.  Why do we keep
.pretending that other animals can't communicate or act intelligently?
.We are animals; we are mammals.  We're made out of the same stuff as
.other animals and constructed very similarly.  What makes us so
.different?

Your (our) cultural prejudices are showing.  This is very much a
European-American attitude.  The North American Native American tribes have
a very different philosophy wherein humans and animals are co-equal
tenants of the universe.  It's more appropriate to ask what's different
about our culture that we don't share these attitudes.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@TTI.COM)   Illegitimati Nil
Citicorp(+)TTI                                           Carborundum
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 452-9191, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun|philabs|psivax|trwrb}!ttidca!hollombe