Morality & Market Capitalism...

During the class discussion morality and market capitalism interested me in particular because the terms exhibit fundamental animal behavior from my perspective. Shows like "Meerkat Manor" and studies of penguin mating rituals display evidence constantly. The male penguin with the nicest pebble/rock for the female earns mating rights with her. Sound familiar? Meerkats discipline family members for breaking social rank, and attack or retaliate rival family groupings. Our society values materialistic stature and competes for family benefit in the workforce against environmental surroundings for an advantage. I think Morality is not a human construction because even in other animal groupings these boundaries of behavior are in place. The organisms do not term it as "morality" but they recognize their role and expectations within a group and often punishment (banishment) may occur for misbehavior, like our dysfunctional prison system. I don't think Market Capitalism is a human construction either because of its existence among other organisms in nature.

Electronic Red Apples....

The electron is definitely not a human construction because this particle of matter would exist even if humans did not. Our perception of electrons is the differing element, no pun intended. What we think we see in an ES microscope and the roles we believe electrons play in matter and function of materials is what changes and makes it constructed in our minds and reality.

This is similar to my stance on the color red. I think if humans did not exist, the thing which we perceive as "red" would still be an occurrence in the world but could be called by another title by another organism, however it would still be the same object. I feel the same way about Apples, and most fruit in general. These plants are a part of nature and would continue to exist whether or not we cultivated them for specific purposes, like consumption. Another organism may call them by another name, or the fruit could be poisonous to other systems of anatomy, but the object itself remains constructed by nature.

Partial Human Construction....

I think the number three is partially a human construction because without our existence, units of items would still be able to exist in such a formation. However it is us, the human race, who give it the title "Three" designating the formation from others by different titles. So, I think the certain grouping of items in such a way is not a human construction, while the title we give it is constructed. I hope that wasn't too redundant! Some of these are hard to explain, but that's the point I suppose.

I have a similar attitude toward Music. I feel that music is partly a human construction because when we hear something which provokes aesthetic emotion towards the sound we think of it in our terms as "music." However, songbirds chirping may also provoke this emotion and exists independently of us in nature. To the birds it is not music, but their language and means of communication. I really like Prof. Johnson's definition of music, "the creative organization of sound." It applies the term "organized sound" from our reading and adds the element of necessary creativity to make something new and likable to at least one other individual.

Time is another partial human construction because it may exist if we do not, but humans have constructed means to measure and value "time" as is passes at 60 minutes per hour into the future. I think moments are measured differently on each planet and solar system dependent upon orbit of the largest influencing gravitational body. The universe as a whole however, expands and ages independent of the smaller systems. If I had to choose only one and not a middle, I would pick not a human construction over entirely human construction because time would continue if humans became extinct and our clocks stopped.