This One’s For You

So I was having this discussion yesterday with someone about the Best. Her claim—having lived many years out East—was that the Ivy League is the Best. My argument was the University of Chicago is the Best. Ultimately, I think we’re both correct. We’re simply measuring things with different yardsticks. The Ivy League is known for producing great politicians, business people, and lawyers. I completely agree: the Ivy League is the Best. If MIT were part of the Ivy League, I might concede the point, but here’s where I draw the distinction. The University of Chicago is the Best in my book because they attract a higher grade of intellectual. I think Chicago, and the names of some intensely cerebral people come to mind. When it comes to intellectuals, the University of Chicago is the Best.

Anyway, I was reminded of all that this evening as I was reading The Moral Status of Animals in this week’s Chronicle by everyone’s favorite moral philosopher, the lovely Martha C. Nussbaum of the University of Chicago.

We humans share a world and its scarce resources with other intelligent creatures. As the court said, those creatures are capable of dignified existence. It is difficult to know precisely what that means, but it is rather clear what it does not mean: the conditions of the circus animals beaten and housed in filthy cramped cages, the even more horrific conditions endured by chickens, calves, and pigs raised for food in factory farming, and many other comparable conditions of deprivation, suffering, and indignity. The fact that humans act in ways that deny other animals a dignified existence appears to be an issue of justice, and an urgent one.

Indeed, there is no obvious reason why notions of basic justice, entitlement, and law cannot be extended across the species barrier, as the Indian court boldly did.

In other news, Ben Folds’ Songs for Silverman has really been growing on me. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. You might note that Ben’s website, in its current incarnation, was the inspiration for the latest design of Manufactured Environments, which may or may not be obvious. Now you know.