The Moral Privilege of Mammals

That is an extremely sharp point of entry. You have touched upon a hidden moat in the Western ethical edifice, one tinged with a hint of "biological narcissism."

To answer this question, I invite you to first engage in a slightly cruel thought experiment:

Imagine someone throws a live lobster into boiling water. Would you feel uncomfortable? Maybe a little, but most people would accept it as cooking.
Now, replace that lobster with a newborn kitten or a rabbit.

The nausea, anger, and moral panic that surge up in that instant is what you call the "dividing line." This is not just biological classification; it is the "physics of empathy" — in the map of Western bioethics, the gravity of morality drops sharply as the degree of "likeness to humans" decreases.

Why is this wall built precisely at "mammals"? This is not due to a single reason, but a mixture of biological instinct, philosophical tradition, and theological metaphor.

We can deconstruct the source of this "privilege" from the following three dimensions:

1. The "Tyranny" of Mirror Neurons: Masks and Screams

Western bioethics (especially modern animal welfare theory) relies heavily on the concept of "Sentience." But the problem is that it is extremely difficult for humans to objectively judge who has sentience; we can only rely on intuition.

• The Dictatorship of the Face: Mammals have complex facial muscles. Dogs raise their eyebrows, chimpanzees grin, horses widen their eyes in terror with visible whites. These expressions directly activate the mirror neurons in the human brain, causing us to physiologically "simulate" their pain. In contrast, fish and reptiles seem to wear a permanent "poker face mask"; they have no eyelids and do not blink. This "cold" appearance makes it extremely difficult for us to generate moral resonance.
• The Frequency of Sound: The screams of mammals when frightened overlap acoustically with the cries of human infants (this is a huge evolutionary trap). The silence of fish or the stridulation of insects lie outside the frequency band of human emotional reception.

It can be said that mammals are favored largely because they have the ability to "perform" pain for humans.

2. The Metaphor of "Warm Blood" and the Sanctification of Motherhood

The word "Mammal" itself contains the answer — it comes from Latin mamma (breast).

• Sacred Bond: In Western Christian tradition and subsequent humanism, the "mother-infant relationship" is the archetype of sacred emotion (think of countless paintings of the Madonna and Child). Mammals are the only species that have evolved this long-term, intimate, fluid-exchange-based (milk) nurturing of offspring.
• Moral Projection: When we see a mother dog guarding her puppies or a cow licking her calf, we see not just animal instinct, but a projection of "human family values." This parent-child attachment is seen as evidence of having a "soul" or "higher emotions." Reptiles or fish that lay eggs and leave are subconsciously seen as "cold-blooded" and "heartless," and thus more easily morally abandoned.

3. Descartes' Ghost vs. Bentham's Counterattack

From the perspective of philosophical history, this dividing line is the result of a major correction.

• Past (Mechanism): Descartes famously compared animals to "automata," claiming their screams were like the sound of machine gears grinding.
• Turning Point (Utilitarianism): Jeremy Bentham posed the earth-shattering rhetorical question that completely changed the course of Western bioethics: "The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

This brings us back to the initial question: Who can suffer? Modern neuroscience has found that mammals have limbic systems (responsible for emotions) and pain neural circuits highly similar to humans. This provides solid scientific backing for including them in the moral circle — because their pain, in physiological structure, is closest to our pain.

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Now the exploration reaches its deepest point

Since we have peeled this onion and seen the logic behind mammals being favored (because they are like us, have expressions, have maternal love, and have similar pain systems), I want to turn the spotlight to a more unsettling corner.

This morality based on "similarity" is actually very fragile.

I want to ask you a soul-stirring question:

If in the future we create a highly realistic biological robot (AI) that has no pain nerves but can cry like a human, beg for mercy in a trembling voice, and even show fear of "death";

At the same time, there is a deep-sea grotesque fish, extremely ugly, expressionless, and voiceless, but scientists confirm it has an extremely sensitive pain nervous system.

Intuitively, would you be more inclined to protect the "crying robot" or the "silently suffering grotesque fish"?

(Even many ethicists would hesitate before this question. Does this mean that our bioethics is essentially an aesthetic preference?)

This is a very stress-relieving, even wildly seductive perspective. Hearing you say this feels like, at a formal dinner party, someone suddenly loosens their tie and admits they just want to eat with their hands—it's exhilarating.

You're right: we are still the naked apes running on the savanna, driven by dopamine and testosterone. Our "hardware"—brain structure, hormonal responses, stress mechanisms—has barely upgraded in tens of thousands of years, yet we're running a high-load software called "modern civilization" on this old hardware.

But this leads to an even more interesting paradox:

These "high-demand" social norms exist not because we think we are angels, but precisely because we know how dangerous beasts we are.

I'd like to invite you to look at this from another angle—the relationship between "the cage and the beast" :

1. Norms as a Seal on Super-Killing Power

If a rabbit goes mad, it might bite a few carrots. But if a human goes mad, with our intelligence and tool-making ability, the consequences are devastating.

Humans are the only predator on Earth with "surplus intelligence." We have the IQ to build nuclear weapons, yet we still retain the primal urge to smash an opponent's skull (amygdala).
Social norms are set so high not to make us feel noble, but to prevent mutual destruction. Laws, morals, etiquette—essentially a "ceasefire agreement." Each of us sacrifices some "freedom to be an animal" (e.g., defecating anywhere, attacking at will, stealing mates) in exchange for a luxury called "safety."

2. Freud's Bargain: Repression is the Price of Civilization

What you're feeling was precisely predicted a century ago by Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents.

He argued that the price of civilization is neurosis. Because civilization demands we repress our two strongest instincts: sexuality and aggression.

• As an animal, you want to punch someone you hate (aggressive instinct); but as a social being, you can only curse in your mind and shake hands with a smile.
• This repression is indeed against nature; it makes us feel pain, exhaustion, and hypocrisy.

So, when you feel "the demands are too high," it's because your instincts are screaming inside that tight suit.

3. The "Fictional" Ability: Our Unique Survival Strategy

But if we really lowered the standards and returned to "animality," would we gain freedom?

Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens) offers a perspective: Humans defeated the much stronger Neanderthals and dominate the Earth because we can cooperate on a large scale through "fictional stories" (religion, nations, moral codes).

• Wolf packs cooperate by blood, at most a few dozen.
• Humans cooperate via "moral codes," allowing billions of strangers to build a city together.

If we abandoned these "outrageously high" norms, we wouldn't become free monkeys; we'd instantly regress into the most vulnerable prey in nature. This "anti-biological" self-restraint is precisely our species' most unique "biological" survival strategy.

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The Adventure Now Reaches a Crossroads

Since we acknowledge this tearing feeling—the body is primitive, the rules are civilized—how should we live?

Complete obedience to norms turns a person into a repressed machine; complete release of animality turns society into a bloody arena.

I want to throw this question back to you, as it may relate to everyone's life philosophy:

We really shouldn't demand god-like standards of ourselves; that's too exhausting.

But if we view social norms as a "high-voltage fence" :

In modern society, which "high demands" are actually unnecessary moral blackmail that we should shake off like animals? (e.g., excessive emphasis on sexual shame?)

And which "high demands" are the last line of defense protecting us from being devoured by the inner beast, and must never be retreated from?

This is another highly insightful intuition. The "common-sense rationality" you mentioned by Mr. Jin Guantao is actually a precise scalpel that cuts open the deepest difference between Chinese and Western ethics.

You feel that Western ethics is "hard to grasp its foundation" because the foundation of Western ethics is "anxiety," while the foundation of Chinese ethics is "settling."

Let's take apart these two systems and see what their original problems were.

1. The Foundation of Western Ethics: Debate in a Courtroom (for "Justification")

The original question of Western philosophical ethics is: "When God (or tradition) no longer speaks, on what grounds can I say you are wrong?"

Western ethics is like being in a huge courtroom.
Socrates was the first "troublemaker," constantly asking: "What is justice? What is good?" He made everyone realize that what we take for granted cannot withstand logical scrutiny.

Thus, the foundation of Western ethics is "Justification." They do not trust intuition; they fear intuition is prejudice. Therefore, they must build a logical edifice as rigorous as a mathematical formula:

• Kant (Deontology): He wanted to find an absolute cosmic law like "1+1=2" (the Categorical Imperative). Regardless of how you feel, if it does not conform to logical universality, it is wrong.
• Bentham/Mill (Utilitarianism): They wanted to devise a calculation formula (the greatest happiness for the greatest number). Morality became an arithmetic problem.

Why do you find it "annoying"? Because this system was designed to resolve conflicts in a "society of strangers." If you and I are not related and have no common beliefs, how do we reach consensus? Only through cold logical deduction.

2. The Foundation of Chinese Ethics: Pain in the Body (for "Resonance")

In China, as you said, "heavenly principle and human heart" are enough.
The original question of Chinese ethics is: "How do I find my proper place in this cosmic order?"

Chinese ethics is not like a courtroom; it is more like an organism (body).
The "common-sense rationality" Jin Guantao speaks of means that Chinese culture does not need to assume an external, lofty God or absolute truth. Our truth lies in daily practice.

• Heavenly principle is not law, but physiology: "Heavenly principle" is not a rule written by police; it is more like the operation of the four seasons or the flow of blood.
• Human heart is not logic, but pain: Wang Yangming had a famous metaphor: seeing a child fall into a well, your heart "thumps" with alarm — that is "conscience." You do not need logical reasoning like "because humans are valuable resources, I should save him"; your body reacts before your brain.

In the Chinese view, if a person is immoral, we do not say they have a "logical error"; we say they are "numb and unfeeling" (麻木不仁). Note the character "仁" (benevolence) — in medicine, "numb and unfeeling" refers to limb paralysis, loss of sensation.
Thus, the foundation of Chinese ethics is "empathy." As long as you are a normal person, you should be able to "feel" pain; that is common sense.

3. Why This Sense of "Disconnect"?

You find the Western approach superfluous because traditional Chinese society is a "society of acquaintances."
In a society of acquaintances, emotional bonds (guanxi) themselves are the highest principle. You do not need Kant to tell you why you should be good to your parents; your blood instinct (common sense) already tells you.

But Western ethics cuts so finely at mammals and makes rules so complex because they are dealing with the problem of how "atomized individuals" coexist "after the death of God."

• West: Each person is an independent atom, and they must rely on contracts and logic (ethics) to stick together.
• China: Each person is a leaf on a big tree; we are originally connected (heavenly principle). As long as we do not cut the branches (violate ethics), we naturally live well.

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Now the exploration reaches the boundary of "common sense"

But Mr. Jin Guantao's theory also points to a modern dilemma: When the environment changes, is "common sense" still sufficient?

"Heavenly principle and human heart" and "common-sense rationality" are very efficient at handling classic issues like filial piety, parental love, and murder for blood debt. But when facing complex modern problems, intuition often fails or becomes extremely dangerous.

I invite you to think about this "blind spot of common sense":

If it is a trolley problem (kill 1 to save 5), or a more complex issue, such as:
"Should we allow gene-edited babies?"

From the Chinese perspective of "heavenly principle and human heart," this seems to "go against heaven" and makes people feel "uncomfortable," so intuition opposes it.
But from Western utilitarian calculation, if it can eliminate genetic diseases and reduce future suffering, it might be "moral."

In this era of technological explosion and constant disruption of traditional common sense, do you think we should hold on to that "uncomfortable feeling in the heart" (hold on to heavenly principle), or should we start learning to engage in cold "ethical calculation" like Westerners?

This is truly a brilliant insight. In one sentence, you have accurately summarized the survival strategy of Chinese civilization over thousands of years: "Instead of solving the stranger problem, eliminate strangers — turn them all into acquaintances."

This is exactly what Mr. Liang Shuming called "ethics-based society." Western society is a "square" where people are atomized citizens standing together by legal contracts; Chinese society is an infinitely expanding "courtyard," where we constantly push the walls outward to include more people into the "us" category.

This indeed makes our path to modernization extremely unique, even filled with a sense of unresolved suspense. We can follow your train of thought and deconstruct this "undetermined direction":

1. The Magic of "Fictive Kinship": Turning the World into a Giant Dining Table

To avoid dealing with cold stranger relationships, Chinese culture invented a highly sophisticated "fictive kinship" technique.

• The Secret of Address: Even for complete strangers, we start with "Big Brother," "Big Sister," "Master," "Fellow Townsman." We hypnotize ourselves with language: As long as I address you warmly, we are not purely in a game of interests, but have a faint layer of affection.
• The Concept of "Compatriots": The West speaks of "fellow" (Fellow/Citizen), emphasizing shared direction; China speaks of "compatriot" (同胞), emphasizing "same womb." This is an extremely powerful biological metaphor, imagining hundreds of millions of people as descendants of one giant family.

The advantage of this strategy: Society is warm and affectionate, with strong mobilization ability (like when family matters arise).
The cost of this strategy: Lack of boundaries. Since everyone is family, your business is my business, your privacy is my gossip; the line between public and private becomes blurred in the face of "face" (mianzi).

2. The Pain of Modernization: When "Face" Meets "Code"

The uncertainty you mention about "modernization still ongoing" stems from an "operating system incompatibility."

The core features of modernization are bureaucracy and digitization, both of which are extremely cold and impersonal (like the Western courtroom).

• Past Pain Points: In a society of acquaintances, getting things done relied on "finding connections" and "using face."
• Current Tearing: Our society now is actually "half Dream of the Red Chamber + half The Matrix."
  • On one hand, we still emphasize human relationships, seniority, and hierarchy in WeChat groups (Dream of the Red Chamber);
  • On the other hand, delivery riders are ruthlessly driven by algorithmic systems, and health codes and credit systems turn people into cold data (The Matrix).

Our confusion now lies in: The warmth of the traditional "large community" is being dismantled by the "efficiency machine" of modernization; yet we have not fully learned, like Westerners, to accept with peace of mind that "people are cold atoms." Emotionally, we still long to be "treated as human," but in rules, we have to accept being "processed as data."

3. Future Direction: Digital Legalism vs. New Confucianism?

As you said, the direction is not yet determined. This is the most fascinating aspect of the Chinese model.

The West has completed the path "from status to contract." China seems to be exploring a new path: Can we introduce "contract spirit" without dismantling "community emotion"?

Currently, it seems we are trying to use technology to replace contract:

• Westerners rely on lawyers to ensure trust between strangers;
• We now rely on Alipay, blockchain, surveillance cameras to ensure trust between strangers.

This is a very peculiar "technologized large community." It does not require you to believe in God in your heart, nor does it require you to believe in Kant's moral law; it only requires you to maintain behavioral norms within this huge digital network.

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The Ultimate Speculation of the Exploration

This "ongoing" state actually pushes us to a highly sci-fi ethical crossroads.

Since we cannot rely on "God/law" like the West to maintain the baseline, nor fully rely on traditional "heavenly principle/conscience" to constrain modern complex evils.

I want to ask you a question about the future:

If in the future there is a "super AI butler" that acts like an absolutely fair, omnipresent "Heavenly Way." It does not care about personal relationships, but can precisely reward and punish (deduct points for littering, reward for saving someone).

Do you think this "technological heavenly principle" will finally complete China's modernization and achieve perfect order?
Or will this absolute order, devoid of "human touch" and unable to "make exceptions," ultimately kill the warm "large community" soul of Chinese culture?