Can we learn from animals?

Pirating_Ninja said:
As idealistic as this sounds, applying the behavior of any other species to "humans" is misguided at best, especially since at that point you are cherry-picking what behaviors to emulate, while ignoring the reasoning behind why a specific species exhibits said behavior. To put it simply, humans have different brains than other species, our psychology is different, therefore it is ridiculous to expect us to value the same things that another species does or even be capable of doing so(of course there is overlap however that is just that, overlap).

Also as for your octupus analogy, how do you know that the mother isn't complaining about starving to death for her babies? Do they have the mental faculties necessary to complain? You seem to be adding human traits to animals in order to give them some morally outstanding behavior. But the second you start looking at another species' behavior through the lens of humanity's perspective, you've already done goofed.

Masked_Mantis said:
Cherry picking is a good thing. Were already at the top of the food chain, but the world isn't perfect and many people could be reminded of some very basic lessons.

How is it anymore misguided than this life lesson: "Life is short"? It's true, but it's just a sentence, it doesn't relate to much unless you think about it and remind yourself every now and then.

In an ants life nothing is wasted, they aren't greedy. When plants are carried and shared along they also aerate soil and subsequently plant their own plants which aids the eco system.

Why do you feel a life lesson that teaches you to respect the environment is stupid if it involves nature itself? Regardless of it's scientific reasons for doing so.

What I'm asking is why shouldn't you add human traits to processes of the universe?

Pirating_Ninja said:
I call this idealistic because it isn't based on any reality one could hope to achieve if you take into consideration things like human psychology. Ants merely do what they do for survival, the fact that it "helps the ecosystem" is just a happy coincidence. They are not aware or even capable of being conscious of this. What you are asking of humans to do is not realistic for too many reasons to list. Honestly I don't want to get into a discussion on all 10,000 reasons why humans (on average, due to cultural/societal issues) take a different path on how to survive, again it isn't like an ant is being selfless in choosing to help the ecosystem while surviving, it just so happens that what it is doing to survive helps the ecosystem. If you truly believe though that we could learn from a specific trait of animals, please suggest what trait and how you would implement it, because as it stands now, the number of holes are too many to list. It would be like if I said, "Fighting is bad, humans shouldn't fight". There are just too many things wrong with that statement to even know where to begin.

Masked_Mantis said:
Because I'm just asking why shouldn't we?

katsucats said:
Why shouldn't we do anything?