We are all Animals

The recurring idea of the importance of animals and empathy towards them in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was really interesting to me; caring for an animal is considered virtuous and a reflection of higher moral status. Specifically, the abundance of technology and the rarity of living things forces people to appreciate life. Here, In our world, the use and value of technology is steadily increasing, and people rely less on themselves and others. In the book, however, technology is used to try to replace the feeling of living things (like electric animals) and emotions (like the mood box), and is worth much less than life. While we praise and push technological development, Rick Deckard thinks of "The tyranny of an object... it doesn't know I exist. Like the androids, it had no ability to appreciate the existence of another" (page 40).

The fact that this value of animals was not created until they were nearly extinct shows that empathy is conditional. In the definitions of empathy, there is a quote from Ducasse: "For the most part we empathize inanimate things only in so far as we are interested in them aesthetically" (page 242). I think this exemplifies out attitude towards many things. Yes, humans can feel love, empathy, caring, and a wide range of other emotions, but usually only when it affects us in some way. Maybe this is why we care so much more about "cute" things, like puppies and kittens, and not "ugly" things, like cockroaches. I think this is why so many people have a hard time applying basic standards of humaneness to their own lives. One example that always comes to mind is the fact that choosing not to support the torture and slaughter of animals, simply over pleasing the appetite is a hard choice for many people to make. Bentham notes the connection between the merciless attitudes of people towards animals and racism. "The day has been.. in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing as... the inferior races of animals are still" (page 245). Like previous behaviors towards other races or the opposite sex, many people still find it easy to exclude animals from their circle of empathy. Hopefully however, the majority of people will realize that as sentient beings, animals deserve to be treated with respect and compassion.

Many people like to argue that empathy is specifically a human quality, and in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," animals and androids are not considered to be empathetic, and it is this fact that allows humans to distinguish androids from humans. One of the definitions of humane is "behavior or disposition towards others such as befits a human being" (page 232). However, I disagree with this idea. I believe that animals too can feel empathy, and that Dick's view of empathy as a "biological insurance" (page 29) applies to other beings also. In the definitions of empathy, Ogden's idea that "The chimpanzee is able to empathize.." is included. (page 242). When people pretend to know that animals lack certain things that humans possess, I usually see the statement as ignorant or at least flawed. Obviously, no one can know for sure who (of any type of animal, including humans) feels what. In "The Animal That Therefore I Am," Derrida writes "to the naive assurance of man: How does he know, by the force of his intelligence, the secret internal stirrings of animals? By what comparison between them and us does he infer the stupidity that he attributes to them?" (page 218). Humans like to pretend that because of their superior intelligence (which I also disagree with), they have the right to judge who is treated humanely, and who isn't. I don't think we have this right, and the idea that animals can be treated as objects for our use needs to change. Sadly, because humans are so self absorbed, I think that this realization will only happen and people will take action only when something horrible begins to happen that directly affects humans (mass extinction of animals, disease, starvation, etc.).