Animal Human Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Animal Human Cultures - Essay Example The proponent tries to elaborate this by pointing that humans could actually take advantage of whatever benefits they could substantially exploit from their pets. Keywords: pet keeping, animal companionship, pet, animals â€Å"The keeping of animal companions in the contemporary West is undoubtedly an exercise of domination. Despite this, different kinds of relations are possible† (Cudworth, 144). Discuss. Introduction The keeping of animal companion is a form of domination because humans are superior to any other life forms on earth with respect to different aspects. There is a significant gap, or indifference between humans and animals as agreed by Le Guin (1986). When it comes to intelligence, humans are capable of doing substantial number of great things compared to its other animal counterparts. Cudworth (2011) strongly emphasises this point by mentioning how humans could be capable of altering different breeds of pets. For instance, substantial breeds of pets are remarka ble at present. Based on the idea of Franklin (1999), the reason why this could be so it is because having companionship with pets would bring some substantial benefits for humans. In other words, genetic modifications which led to animals to become diversified in their breeds points to the fact that they are not humans in the first place. In other words, humans can take control over them and there could also be many things that they can possibly do with them. Cudworth emphasises that pets are loved because they are not humans in the first place. However, the definition of this love might be a bit problematic because this argument simply has remarkable implications in proving some important relationships existing between humans and animals. Furthermore, this argument proves that affection and love may not be synonymous after all as there must considerations of different contexts in this issue. However, it is obvious that there must be substantial form of relationships existing betwe en humans and animals in the issue of animal companionship. The proponent tries to elaborate this point clearly as possible by applying the arguments of Franklin and Cudworth in line with the issue of animal companionships. Background issue The domestication of animals provides many important things. In fact, this is the point in which humans can maximise everything out of domesticating or taking control over animals. For Cudworth this could involve having affection with them despite the very presence of domination. However, Franklin tries to include the point in which this specific affection addresses ontological insecurity. This ontological insecurity comes after the loss of paternal welfare due to market individualism in 1960s (Franklin, 1999). The keeping of animal companions boils down to the fact that humans could take care of their pets with them due to some elemental reasons. So it could be that the domestication itself is a way to orchestrate better interaction between huma ns and animals for the benefit of the former. It is true that the keeping of animals in the contemporary West is a form of domination but according to Cudworth (2011), there is affection involved in it. It is important to consider in great detail what this affection particularly means. As for the argument of Franklin, there could be essential relationship that exists in keeping animals as companions. However, his entire argument includes the major points about the benefits