Singularity

1. Singularity Gary Comstock Professor of Philosophy, NC State University 2007-09 ASC Fellow, National Humanities Center 30 June 7 July 2008 Environmental Ethics in Teaching Social Sciences and Humanities, Moscow AUTONOMY | SINGULARITY | CREATIVITY

2. Overview A. Are humans singular? B. Which animals possess these capacities? • Sentience • Tool-usage • Emotion • Empathy • Theory of mind • Altruism • Biography • Self-consciousness • Higher order thought • Autobiography C. Conclusions

3. A. Are humans singular ? • As individuals? • As a species?

4. Individual humans are singular, unique, irreplaceable. Why? No one else has your: DNA Body Soul Personal identity

5. Monozygotic twins Unique Individuals You are irreplaceable. No one else has your: DNA ?

6. Dicephaly Unique Individuals You are irreplaceable. No one else has your: Body ?

7. Unique Individuals You are irreplaceable. No one else has your: Soul ?

8. Singularity • The Immaterial Soul: • I am not my DNA, my body, or my brain. • I am my spiritual essence, the part of me that thinks and feels, remembers and hopes--the immaterial self that perceives and is affected by and acts on the material world. • I am incorporeal, not necessarily causally tied to my body or bound by the operations of my brain.

9. Soul: Incorporeal, or dualistic, accounts of human identityProblem: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) show that specific brain activity patterns are caused by specific electrical stimuli, and in turn predictably cause specific thoughts or feelings. How do we reconcile belief in an untethered soul with such tight correlations between inputs to our brain and outputs to our consciousness?If ours souls were unconnected to our brains, wouldn’t drunken sailors at least sometimes be immune to the disorienting effects of wine?

10. Singularity Unique Individuals You are irreplaceable. No one else has your: Soul ? • Drunken sailors

11. Problem 1 with dualism: Chemicals introduced to the brain invariably cause the self to shut down.

12. Souls Problem 2 with dualism: Electrical stimulus to brain Area 25 causes previously untreatable depression to lift. • Deep brain stimulation

13. Dualistic accounts of human identity face 2 problemsProblem 1: ChemicalAlcohol impairs thinking and diminishes brain function. Dualism is not a convincing explanation of the fact that there is a causal connection between the time alcohol enters the drinker’s brain and the time the drinker’s mental functions are impaired. Or when alcohol leaves the brain and mental function is restored.Problem 2: Physiological Severe damage to the prefrontal cortex of the brain results invariably in severe damage to a person’s ability temporally to order information and, thus, plan future activities. Dualism is not the best explanation of such facts.

14. Unique Individuals You are irreplaceable. No one else has your: Embodied mind? Embodied minds are psychological beings with direct psychological connections between earlier and later mental states: The first experience of X and the later memory of it; the formation of a desire Y and the later satisfaction or frustration of it; the first occurrence of a belief, value, or character trait Z—and the later blossoming, maturing, deepening, or withering away, of it.

15. Embodied minds are psychological continuities, individuals whose memories and anticipations have direct and strong psychological connectedness. When there are direct psychological connections between a person P1 at time t1 and a person P2 at t2, P1 and P2 are psychologically connected with one another (strong or weak). There is strong psychological connectedness if over any day, there are at least half the number of direct connections that hold over every day, in the lives of nearly every actual person. Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, 1984

16. Persons = Psychological continuities whose pasts (memories) and futures (anticipations) are as complex as an ordinary adult human’s memories and anticipations, and extend as far into the past and future. Near-persons = Psychological continuities whose memories and anticipations are not as complex or extended as a person’s memories and anticipations. Post-persons = Psychological continuities whose memories and anticipations are more complex and extended than are persons.

17. ImplicationsZygotes have biological connectedness but no psychological connectedness (“p-relations”) to the being it will be at age 23.2-month fetuses up through infants have biological connectedness and capacity for p-relations but no p-relations to the beings they will be at age 23.A 2 year old has weak, developing, p-relations.A 10 year old has strong p-relations to itself at 11, weak at 93.A 23 year old pregnant woman has extraordinarily strong ties to herself 20 years into the future, envisioning her child, e.g., graduating from college.A 93 year old defeated Alzheimer’s sufferer who wishes to die has extraordinarily weak ties to himself 3 months into future.

18. A. Are humans singular ? • As individuals? • As a species? Problem comparing group x and group y: Must ALL and ONLY members of group x possess properties not possessed by members of group y?

19. A Singular Species ? All and only humans possess a special capacity (e.g., a soul, or language, or rationality) because a divine being created us with it, denying it to other animals.

20. Overview A. Are humans singular? B. Which animals possess these capacities? • Sentience • Tool-usage • Emotion • Empathy • Theory of mind • Altruism • Biography • Self-consciousness • Higher order thought • Autobiography C. Conclusions

21. God Angels Humans Birds Fish Animals Plants MineralsDevil The sanctity of (human) life picturea. Ahistoricalb. EssentialistRhetorica ChristianaDidacus Valades1579

22. H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis H. heidelbergensis H. erectus H. habilis H. africanus The Darwinian picturea. Historicalb. Anti-essentialist Stephen J. Gould

23. Might animals be embodied minds? Individuals with direct and strong psychological connectedness? Might a pig think about an event in it its past, have not only the memory of it but also an appreciation of its worth to her? Might a pig appreciate the goods in her life and want to do something with or about them? Oreo makes a nest

24. Are any animals near-persons?Pasts (memories of pain)?Anticipation (desires for future)?Strong and direct psychological connectedness?

25. Which animals feel pain?Sentience = The capacity for phenomenally conscious suffering and/or enjoymentNociceptorsCentral nervous systemsEndogenous opiodsPain behaviors analogous to humans’Analgesics effective in modifying pain behaviors

26. INVERTEBRATES INVERTEBRATES VERTEBRATES VERTEBRATES Earth Earth - - Cepha Cepha - - Insects Insects Fish Fish Herps Herps Birds Birds Mammals Mammals worms worms lopods lopods Nociceptors Nociceptors ? ? - - ? ? - - / ? / ? - - / ? / ? + + + + present present Central Central - - - - + + + + + + + + + + nervous system nervous system Nociceptors Nociceptors connected to connected to - - - - + + + + + + + + + + central nervous central nervous system system Endogenous Endogenous + + + + ? ? + + + + + + + + opioids opiods present present Responses Responses ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? + + + + modified by modified by analgesics analgesics Response to Response to damaging damaging - - - - + + + + + + + + + + stimuli stimuli analogousto analogous to humans' humans'

27. Which animals feel pain?Probably: Mammals Birds Reptiles and amphibians FishProbably not: Insects EarthwormsThat is, probably: All vertebrates No invertebrateshttp://www-phil.tamu.edu/~gary/awvar/lecture/pain.html

28. Which animals have desires?Desires = Dispositions to pursue goals involving practical reasoning that is potentially conscious and includes both drawing inferences from beliefs and hypothesis formation and testing of those beliefs; “wanting to get”Learning behaviors -> Multiple reversal trialsAfter animal has acquired original discrimination (e.g, left, right, right, right), pattern is reversed; after a number of such reversals, organisms may acquire the concept “reversal” and improve speed of acquiring new pattern. -> Probability learningA form of discrimination learning in which the positive stimulus is rewarded on a randomized proportion of trials. Animal first discovers probability (e.g., 80% left and 20% right); then maximizes on the most probable option (the optimal strategy: 80% correct). Humans go on to a (nonoptimal) matching strategy (of, e.g., 80% and 20%, which yields 68% correct = (0.8) x (0.8) + (0.2) x (0.2)

29. MULTIPLE REVERSAL MULTIPLE REVERSAL PROBABILITY LEARNING PROBABILITY LEARNING no progressive no progressive fish fish adjustment adjustment matching matching herpetofauna herpetofauna * * birds birds maximizing maximizing progressive progressive ** ** adjustment adjustment systematic systematic mammals mammals matching matching *** Notes: Notes: * * Herps Herps (reptiles and amphibians) exhibit progressive adjustment on spa (reptiles and amphibians) exhibit progressive adjustment on spa tial problems (those in which the location of presented tial problems (those in which the location of presented objects is salient) but not on visual problems (those in which t objects is salient) but not on visual problems (those in which t he shape or color of presented objects is salient). he shape or color of presented objects is salient). **Birds maximize on spatial problems but not on visual problems. **Birds maximize on spatial problems but not on visual problems. ***Only primates systematically avoid the previously rewarded al ***Only primates systematically avoid the previously rewarded al ternative. Other mammals' systematic matching consists in ternative. Other mammals' systematic matching consists in selecting the previously rewarded alternative. selecting the previously rewarded alternative.

30. Which animals have self-consciousness?-> Mirror test Monkeys? No Bottle-nose dolphins? Maybe Great apes? Yes Elephants? Yes

31. Which animals act altruistically?-> Rope test: Chimps 1930’s Nissen and Crawford Study, Yerkes archives (2 minutes)http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/av/nissencrawford_cut.mov

32. Which animals are near-persons?Probably: Chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants, octopiPerhaps: All mammals Some birdsProbably not: Reptiles and amphibians Fish http://www-phil.tamu.edu/~gary/awvar/lecture/pain.html

33. Overview A. Are humans singular? B. Do nonhuman animals possess these capacities? • Sentience • Tool-usage • Emotion • Empathy • Theory of mind • Altruism • Biography • Self-consciousness • Higher order thought • Autobiography C. Conclusions We are not singular in capacities 1 – 8. We are singular in capacities 9 - 10.

34. Overview • Why does it matter? Singularity supports the sanctity of life ethic: • All humans have moral standing, including human zygotes, embryos, those with advanced Alzheimer’s, the severely congenitally cognitivelyimpaired, the brain dead and, for many writers, corpses. • Only humans have moral standing: nonhuman animals may be used as instruments, within bounds, to serve our purposes.

35. Overview • Why does it matter? The sanctity of life ethic supports: • Extensive protections for humans used in agriculture and research (Institutional Review Boards). • Extensive permissions for animals in agriculture and research and agriculture (100 million hogs killed in US per year).

36. Overview • 1. Human singularity (an empirical hypothesis): Humans are unique, one of a kind, different from all other animals and machines. • 2. Nonhuman animals have moral standing if and only if they are sentient. Moral standing: One’s interests must be taken into account whenever an action may affect increase or diminish—one’s wellbeing. Individuals with moral standing may be used as a means to others ends if and only if doing so will maximize the good. • 3. Human sanctity (a moral hypothesis): All and only human lives have worth, deserve respect. Moral worth: Human life is protected by rights. Because we possess practical reason, we may not be treated as means to others’ ends, even if their doing so will maximize the good. • 4. The sanctity hypothesis implies all human lives have worth even if they do not maximize the good. • 5. The sanctity hypothesis implies human life has worth because of a property it has that other animals lack. • 6. That property is (variously identified as): a human body, one’s own DNA, or a human mother and father, or sentience, tool-usage, emotion, empathy, morality, altruism, self-consciousness, a theory of mind, thought, reason, autonomy, and autobiography. • 7. Human singularity denied. We are not unique in these capacities: bodies, DNA, mother and father, sentience, tool-usage, emotion, empathy, morality, altruism, self-consciousness, or a theory of mind. • 8. Human singularity affirmed: We are singular in these respects: we are the only animals who live autobiographical lives, have the impulse to teach others one’s own plotted past and future.

37. References Gary E. Varner, In Nature’s Interests? Interests, Animal Rights, and Environmental Ethics (NY: Oxford, 1998). Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (NY: Oxford, 2002).