- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Critics offer many arguments against raising octopuses for food, including possible releases of waste, antibiotics or pathogens from aquaculture facilities. But as a psychologist, I see intelligence as the most intriguing part of the equation. Just how smart are cephalopods, really? After all, it’s legal to farm chickens and cows. Is an octopus smarter than, say, a turkey?
Broadly agreeing, I do have a thought.
Where we lack a clear understanding that allows us to draw a clear line, that doesn’t prevent us from identifying cases that are apart from that line.
We might not know where the line is, but we know mushrooms aren’t close and that chimps aren’t either.
We might not know how far from the line they’re on, we do know which side of the line they’re on.
Sure, pragmatically we can make these choices, but it’s still arbitrary.
I don’t think it is, it just acknowledges the error bars of uncertainty around the non-arbitrarily line we’re yet to fully define.
Any line would be arbitrary without an ethical underpinning on which it is based, the discussion is traditionally philosophical in nature rather than pragmatic - although ethicists are in short supply these days so we must make do.