Monkey-men with maturity problems

[Jake_Ellison]

It's that simple. If something has the potential to become intelligent, even if that potential will only become actual through the use of technology, they have rights.

What are you basing this statement on? Are you then also against abortion, and even birth control, definitely embrionic stem-cell research?

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

Dr.Peikoff gave and interesting answer to this sort of dilemma in his most recent podcast. Someone asked why we do not consider monkeys and higher primates to be rational when they show the possibility to be rational in certain tests and observations.

Basically, his answer is that for the higher primates, while they do show signs of reasoning, it is only temporary and not their means of survival, and we cannot discuss conflicts with them and resolve them with reason. So, even for the hypothetical of this thread, it would depend on how rational they were. If they revert back to living extremely short-range immediate moment types of living as an animal, then they are not using reason to live their lives and would not have rights.

[aeinste1n]

If something has the potential to become intelligent, even if that potential will only become actual through the use of technology, they have rights.

Any being could become rational with the help of super-advanced technology, but that does not make them deserving of rights. You achieve rights not from potential, but from being. When that being becomes rational is when it gain rights. The distinction that needs to be made with this monkey-man example is the difference between a rational being and a non-rational being. This has a real-world application when you deal with people that have a mental disability. You must make the decision for each individual whether they are rational or not. If the Monkey is rational, i.e. it can use logic to discover truths and create higher concepts through abstraction, then it can deal with other rational beings without the use of force and therefore has rights and is the same as any other individual. But this also means that it can be given no special advantages, it must support itself like anyone else. If the monkey is not rational it is merely an animal and has no rights. This distinction must be made for each monkey, and likewise for each mentally damaged person; whether they are rationally responsible for themselves like everyone else, or irrational animals. There can be no in-between area, if that were allowed then people of a higher IQ could claim an oligarchy over others. You are either rational and have rights, or irrational and without them.