Being Here

Hello.

I'm studying philosophy, but before we get onto the serious stuff, we are being gently taught the arts past & present. So apart from some sketches on Plato (and Socrates by association), I'm still feeding off scraps and old Monty Python sketches.

BEING. Apparently this is a biggie. We've been taught that Buddhism sees all sentient beings as equal; you live, you die, you come back and do it all over again, unless you become enlightened. But today I saw Martin Heidegger argue against this...

Here is his interview with a Buddhist monk. via @openculture on Twitter

If you don't want to see the interview, the main point I took was this: Only humans have a sense of their own being. He uses the example of a craftsman starting a job; if he has no vision of the job being completed, the job is meaningless so he wouldn't bother. We live, if you like, in the future.

So animals do not have this sense of being, and as a result, a sense of cause and effect. When our German Shepherd, Sophie decided to take out the boredom of being left alone for half an hour on the sofa, she tore it to threads. When we came home she was unrepentant; sitting with a piece of yellow cushion stuffing on her nose, as if to say: "What?" Sam, our other GSD, did look shamefaced; perhaps he was more enlightened.

It's difficult to look into your pet's eyes and not see a little human, but it can be a relief to be reminded they are not. Our Newfoundland Gracie lost the use of her hind legs from the knee down, but the vet explained she would have no fear of the condition worsening. As a result, she merely got on with each day as if the difficulties of the previous one had not happened, not expecting things to get better, but not deteriorating either. She managed to get around quite happily for another four years like this, outliving her twin sister.

The only problem with this thinking is that none of us knows it to be 100 per cent correct. I'm reminded of the film 'The Elephant Man', where Frederick Treves takes solace in the belief that Joseph Merrick is an imbecile, unable to contemplate his deformity, only to hear him reciting poetry in his room. Martin Heidegger is renowned as one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers, but was also a member of the Nazi party until it was abolished. (see more here)

So perhaps Harry (our terrier) knows his eyesight is getting worse, mourns his previous owner, and curses the family that gave him up when he was four years old. I know for a fact that he'd still eat fish fingers, even though they make him ill. He might not be enlightened, perhaps he's just not that bright.