Do you think anthropomorphizing causes many problems?

Question

I watched this show the Dog Wisperer and the basic truth in all the episodes is there is NOTHING wrong with the dog. So really the guy is a psychologist. Because ivariably the people dont know how to relate to dogs. I think this idea is generalizable. Your thoughts please.

Answer 1

I don't know anything about the show but I agree with your question. Western society tends to over use anthropomorphic fallacies on other animals and consequently many people have the misguided notion of animals as having human characteristics. I've lost count of how many times I've heard people misapply human emotions to their pets.

Answer 2

Animals are best left with other animals. Some people fail to see that pets don't want the same things as us and we take care of them in a way which neglects their NATURE.
It is ok to love your pets but we must remember that they are animals and tend to trust their instincts rather than their intellect. Its lke the dog whisperer says , dogs are better of being "treated" with other dogs and "the power of the pack prevails". In order to take care of one's pets we must realize their nature and give them what they need not what we want them to have. A domesticated animal is still an animal not a human. Pets like cats and dogs do feel pain and even happiness we are not the only ones. The difference between animals and humans is that we are concious and aware of our actions and sentiments.
Animals do feel pain , sorrow , (love is questionable though). They just don't feel it to the extent that we do. Animals may be animals but they are still creatures. We can't really tell how an animal feels but we do know that they rely on instinct.
We must not assume that animals don't share some of our feelings because they do , they may not be able to recognize or acknowledge it but they definitely DO feel SOME.

Answer 3

The problems caused by anthorpomorphizing (particularly with animals) are not really problems ... they are stimuli and entertainment for the humans, who enliven their tedium by imagining their doggie or their kittie is "depressed" or "angry" or "paranoid" or whatever.
In fact, sometimes, anthropomorphizing inanimate objects can be a positive boon. I have put up with many substandard vehicles over the years, simply because I was "fond" of them, invested them with "personality" and "behaviors." In this way, my anthropomorphizing helped me cope with occasional "bad behavior" without stressing too much.
This is not to say that animals do not have individual personalities ... they do, at least down to the smaller rodents (whose personality is probably generic to the species). But to invest too much care into the quirks of their individual natures is a collossal waste of time, IMHO.
Cheers.

Answer 4

My thought is that it probably causes a multitude of problems for the people who do it, and for the animals they come into contact with.

On a larger scale, probably society feels the cutting edge, as well.

So long as distance is maintained, probably the consequences for believing that chicken leg didn't come off a chicken, and that Plucky Rooster's still out in the barnyard talking with the hens are likely negligible.

Best, however, if anthromorphizers lives always include plastic foam, unidentifiable protein, protected by transparent plastic.

Answer 5

Anthropomorphizing is bad in other sense, some people endow their pets with definitely "human" qualities, such as spite, malice, guile and others. Animals are good in their nature, they're just. Only sick people with their morbid imagination behave with pets in unnatural way. Thus anthropomorphizing is out of matter.

Answer 6

You bring up a fascinating concept. It got me thinking about Anthropomorphism and its related concepts: Anthropotheism, Theomorphism, and Physitheism, especially as they relate to how we humanize God, bestowing on him all of our all too human attributes and the problems that causes.

Wikipedia describes "Anthropomorphism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphise as the attribution of uniquely human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings, inanimate objects, or natural or supernatural phenomena. Animals, forces of nature, and unseen or unknown sources of chance are frequent subjects of anthropomorphosis."

"It is a common and seemingly natural tendency for humans to perceive inanimate objects as having human characteristics, one which some suggest provides a window into the way in which humans perceive themselves. Common examples of this tendency include naming cars or begging machines to work. In 1953, the U.S. government began assigning hurricanes names; initially the names were feminine, and shortly thereafter masculine names were introduced."

This concept - as I mentioned above - is not specific to animals. God has also been anthropomorphized. This related term is called: Anthropotheism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropotheism

“In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings. Many mythologies are almost entirely concerned with anthropomorphic deities who express human characteristics such as jealousy, hatred, or love. The Greek gods, such as Zeus and Apollo, were often depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is sometimes referred to as Anthropotheism"

"Anthropotheism is ascribing human form and nature to gods, or the belief that gods are only deified human beings. Associated with classical Greek and Roman beliefs, a type of anthropotheism finds a modern expression in the Mormon world-view of eternal progression. Vestiges of Hebrew anthropotheism can be discerned throughout the Old Testament. It is a type of physitheism"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physitheism
"Physitheism is the attribution of a physical form and attributes to deities, a practice associated with the ancient Greeks and to a lesser extent the Romans. In modern Jewish and Christian theology the Abrahamic God is held to be a transcendent spirit with no body parts. However, a vestige of physitheism is apparent in certain passages of the Old Testament such as Exodus 33:23 where God tells Moses, "And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen."

Now as it relates to your question whether assigning human attributes to non human entities such as God can be a bad thing... This begs the question - what is more likely - that a "perfect" being such as God, created "imperfect" creatures such as man, or is it more likely that man being imperfect, in his attempt to create a "perfect" being created an all too "human" deity? We are told God is a jealous god, an angry god, a spiteful god, a murderous god. These do not sound like a being of infinite goodness and perfection.

This brings us to the concept of Theomorphism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theomorphism "Theomorphism: refers to the bestowal of divine attributes on humanity. The term literally means "God-shaped”. Christianity and Judaism teach that "God created man in his own image" (KJV Genesis 1:27). In a sense, it stands the idea of anthropomorphism on its head by affirming that humanity did not create God in its own image, but the reverse. Some religious traditions, most notably the Latter-day Saints, hold that God is a literal physical being, and that mankind is literally created in his image; such traditions fully embrace the concept of theomorphism as a foundational concept."

"Condemnation of anthropomorphism: Many religions and philosophies have condemned anthropomorphism for various reasons. Some Ancient Greek philosophers did not approve of, and were often hostile to their people's mythology. These philosophers often developed monotheistic views. Plato's (427–347 BCE) Demiurge (craftsman) in the Timaeus and Aristotle's (384–322 BCE) prime mover in his Physics are notable examples."

"The Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind." (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies V xiv 109.1-3).

The similarity of these philosophers' concepts of god to the concepts found in the Bible facilitated the incorporation of much pre-Christian Greek philosophy into the Medieval Christian world view by the Scholastics, most notably Thomas Aquinas.

Anthropomorphism of God is condemned by Islam, since Muslims feel that God is beyond human limits of physical comprehension.” This is why Muslims became so enraged when Danish newspapers published cartoons depicting their god. It didn't help that the context was perceived as blaspheming their deity.

“From the perspective of adherents of religions in which the deity or deities have human characteristics, it is more accurate to describe the phenomenon as theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans, rather than anthropomorphism, the giving of human qualities to the divine. According to their beliefs, the deity or deities usually existed before humans, therefore humans were created in the form of the divine. However, for those who do not believe in the doctrine of the religion, the phenomenon can be considered anthropomorphism. In fact, Stewart Elliott Guthrie, in his book Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion (1993), theorizes that all religions are simply anthropomorphisms that originate in the human brain's tendency to over-detect the presence or vestiges of other humans in the natural world."

The notion that man has created all of his gods is not a new concept. http://www.godchecker.com lists 3,000 gods and goddesses that the fertile brain of man has invented.

"What gods are there, what gods have there ever been, that were not from man's imagination?"
— Joseph Campbell, (1904-1987)

"Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm, and yet will make Gods by dozens."
— Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, (1533-1592)

"Fear created the first gods in the world."
— Caecilius Statius (220-168 B.C.)

"Fear is the mother of all gods."
— Lucretius, (B.C.E. 94?-55?)

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
— T. S. Eliot

"For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return."
— Genesis, 3:19

Religion is the human response to being alive and having to die.
— F. Forrester Church