The posters have listed various animals which they fear to be chased by. It would be interesting to see why exactly the posters have listed them - what it is about being charged by those paritcular animals that brings up the most fear in them. And especially the state of mind they see themselves in while being chased by a particular animal.
for me its the teeth, the hands (not really paws, but hands), the rage, and the intellect. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
So what is really scary about an animal charging you is that it is a being with an intellect, that you suspect it is capable of and has malicious intent for charging you? Say, if you fell down a rocky slope with thorny bushes and sustained in roundabout similar injuries as if an animal attacked you, you wouldn't feel so bad about those injuries?
If you sustain an injury from falling down a rocky hillside, do you feel different about that inury in comparison if you sustained a similar injury from an animal attack? (Ie. your skin can be torn by rocks, or animal claws and teeth.)
I would feel differently about that.. A slope doesn't actively seek you out to attack you. On top of that, falling off a slope is probably your own fault for not looking were you go. A better analogy would be someone pushing you over in the street either on purpose or by accident. I know I would feel a whole lot better about someone pushing me over by accident compared to someone seeking me out and pushing me over on purpose.
sustaining the same injuries in a different fashion eliminates a lot of the fear element. to me, fear is just as real as physical pain. i remember reading a study that said being ostracised by your peers activates the same part of the brain that deals with physical pain.
But this is too suggestive for the topic of this thread. It's not established yet whether animals are capable of intent (and most of all, of malicious intent). Perhaps this is what so scary about animal attacks: Not being able to figure out whether it was done with malicious intent or not.
animals are capable of intent. Ever see a group of killer whales knock a seal off the ice. Lots of intent there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxDZW4k8tCY
Then why are we for the most part treating them as if they were automatons? The way they kill cows, pigs, horses, chicken and other animals in slaughterhouses, kitchens, fur farms, laboratories and elsewhere on a daily basis, it certainly does not look like they acknowledge animals are anything but automatons. Along the lines of
I don't doubt animals can intend. See my post above to Enmos. My inquiry earlier was And you then seemed to reason in the direction that it is the intent behind an animal attack that makes the attack and the experience of it so scary.
Eh ? How is how we treat them evidence that they can't show intent ? People treat them like that because they are either ignorant or assholes. Some men treat their wives as if they were filth, does that mean they really are ? I'm sorry, but you'll have to come up with something better than that.
*tsk tsk* In the empirical method, human interest overrides all other interests. Deny that if you can. Dare you say that to the butchers, cooks, laboratory workers?
Damn sure I deny that ! :bugeye: And I dare say it as well.. Human interest.. pfft.. you are one of those then ?
No, how we treat them says something about us, not about the animals. You are being nonsensical now. Relevance ? We are talking about people treating animals as if they were automatons. So you don't put human interest above all else ?