> Basically, showing empathy towards animals signals you would be empathetic to people too, which makes you a more desireable peer today.
My experience has been that those who "show" empathy towards animals are masking or overcompensating for their nastiness. It's a form of privileged virtue signaling. Adolf Hitler, a vegetarian, was renowned the world over for his empathy to animals. Not to nice to humans though.
> Empathy towards other beings is an extrapolation of civilisational developments.
No civilization was built on empathy. All civilizations are built of brutality - conquest, extermination, forced expulsions, destruction of environment, farming, etc. Civilization isn't a natural state of human affairs. No more than industrial farms are a natural state of affairs for bovine. If you can provide an example of any civilization that was built on empathy, I'd be interested.
> Another logical explanation is that without developing empathy for animals, majority of the people would not care for the disruption to the ecosystem (since many people are emotional more than rational).
You do realize that we destroy animals to prevent the destruction of the ecosystem. Look at the damage that invasive wild boars, cats, snakes, insects, fish, etc do. There are even campaigns to exterminate these animals. Where do they factor in your empathy? Not to mention disease spreading mosquitos who are just doing what they are naturally programmed to do. Should they be exterminated?
My experience has been that those who "show" empathy towards animals are masking or overcompensating for their nastiness. It's a form of privileged virtue signaling. Adolf Hitler, a vegetarian, was renowned the world over for his empathy to animals. Not to nice to humans though.
> Empathy towards other beings is an extrapolation of civilisational developments.
No civilization was built on empathy. All civilizations are built of brutality - conquest, extermination, forced expulsions, destruction of environment, farming, etc. Civilization isn't a natural state of human affairs. No more than industrial farms are a natural state of affairs for bovine. If you can provide an example of any civilization that was built on empathy, I'd be interested.
> Another logical explanation is that without developing empathy for animals, majority of the people would not care for the disruption to the ecosystem (since many people are emotional more than rational).
You do realize that we destroy animals to prevent the destruction of the ecosystem. Look at the damage that invasive wild boars, cats, snakes, insects, fish, etc do. There are even campaigns to exterminate these animals. Where do they factor in your empathy? Not to mention disease spreading mosquitos who are just doing what they are naturally programmed to do. Should they be exterminated?