Eric Hoffer: Human Exceptionalist

Eric Hoffer: Human Exceptionalist » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: When you assert that humans are just another animal in the forest, only one part of nature–rather than to a degree separated from and above it–when you create the “rights of nature” or the moral worth of animals to be coequal with those of humans, you fundamentally dehumanize us. When you dehumanize, you shatter human exceptionalism. When you shatter human exceptionalism, you subvert the necessary foundation that undergirds universal human rights and human freedom.