{"id":831,"date":"2019-01-01T13:38:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T13:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=831"},"modified":"2019-01-01T13:38:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T13:38:40","slug":"what-really-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/what-really-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"What Really Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img width='200' height='133' border='0' hspace='5' align='right' src='\/~totl\/skywritings\/uploads\/begkitten.jpg' alt='' \/>1. Statements cannot be \u201cproved\u201d true unless they are just formal proofs in mathematics. (I am sure Jonathan Balcombe did not say \u201cproof\u201d as cited in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2014\/nov\/13\/if-only-they-could-talk-#comment-43601409\">Patrick Barkham&#8217;s article<\/a> in the Guardian.)<\/p>\n<p>2. We know apples fall down rather than up, not because of proof, but because the preponderance of the evidence supports it.<\/p>\n<p>3. Ditto for the law of gravitation, which explains <i>why<\/i> apples fall: no proof, just supporting evidence.<\/p>\n<p>4. Ditto for the fact that animals can feel: no proof, just evidence.<\/p>\n<p>5. Ditto for the fact that human animals feel: no proof, just evidence.<\/p>\n<p>6. The sole exception is oneself: each person knows for sure that they feel what they feel when they feel: No need for either evidence or proof for that. To feel something is enough. (We know that since at least Descartes\u2019 \u201ccogito.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>7. But for anyone else, we know they feel because of evidence, not proof. Not even when they tell us.<\/p>\n<p>8. I think Marian Stamp Dawkins is being more scientistic than scientific in her call for a \u201ccautious\u201d approach.<\/p>\n<p>9. Cautious about what? About knowing whether it hurts if you kick a dog or a calf? Should we keep kicking till we have proof, or &#8220;scientific&#8221; evidence?<\/p>\n<p>10. I would extend Jeremy Bentham\u2019s oft-quoted words: What matters \u201cis not, \u2018Can they reason?\u2019 nor, \u2018Can they talk?\u2019 but \u2018Can they suffer?\u2019\u201d [<i>The Principles of Morals and Legislation<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>11. What matters \u201cis not, \u2018Can they feel pleasure?\u2019 but \u2018Can they suffer?\u2019\u201d [which includes depriving them of pleasure, and of life]<\/p>\n<p>12. That is what should be governing our treatment of all animals, human and nonhuman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. Statements cannot be \u201cproved\u201d true unless they are just formal proofs in mathematics. (I am sure Jonathan Balcombe did not say \u201cproof\u201d as cited in Patrick Barkham&#8217;s article in the Guardian.) 2. We know apples fall down rather than up, not because of proof, but because the preponderance of the evidence supports it. 3. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/what-really-matters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;What Really Matters&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}