Living Like Weasels Annie Dillard

The third part to the human dilemma is that all nonhuman species have evolved to survive their physical habitats, and the human species originally evolved to do this as well. However, human beings have altered the world more in the last ten thousand years, than the ancestors did in the first four million years. We have changed the environment to fit our needs, instead of changing our needs to fit the environment. Most importantly, humans have built entirely new environments, such as farms, villages, cities and towns. The cycling pattern of human expansion and creations has changed the human race from small groups of hunters and gatherers, into a very complex civilization.

Except for the fact that the man kind had to innovate there means of survival. Such as, finding out adequate shelter to take refuge in, “caves”. Using the natural resources to create tools for self-protection and then using them for their basic necessities for survival was pretty much how the man kind got started with the process of evolution in early societies. Every human was and is destined to live a life with freedom and somewhat autonomy that is required to take one’s own decisions, as that was and is the only option mankind could truly enjoy (Fredric,

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard is about the beauty in life and when work becomes art. She talks about Dave Rahm, a fearless pilot and how he maneuvers his plane and the beauty in the moves he executes. Dillard first saw the pilot in an air show and she was enchanted by how the plane moved in the air, almost like music, and how that impacted her and the audience. She later flew with the same pilot, Dave Rahm, and experiences being inside the cockpit of the plane. Dillard uses a lot of details and metaphors that help the readers feel like they are experiencing what is happening themselves. The story she tells of Dave Rahm and his stunts makes the readers think about the beauty and passion in life and the when work becomes art to be seen and

At some point in time we have all wondered what it means to human, and what we are supposed to do with our lives. Throughout the centuries, there have been gradual changes in what it means to be human. Through Pico della Mirandola we will how man became the measure and took the place of God, through Charles Darwin we will see how nature and science began to take the place of man, and through the art of Friedrich we can visually see all of these changes.

Incontrovertibly, one of the first things one may notice upon reading the work, is the use of highly explicit imagery connecting her thoughts and ideologies. With these techniques, her whole impression of the essay establishes an adversary relationship between the natural world and the human world. In summary, the author imposes that with weasels, much more freedom is

From the early prehistoric society until now, we often heard the word “adaptation”, which means the process of changing something or changing our behavior to deal with new situations. The ways people adjust their natural environment varies according to time, place, and tribe. Foraging is common way of adaptation that people uses for most of human history; however because of the population pressure, some people adopt agriculture to fulfill their need. This essay, will discuss the positive and negative aspects of life in hunting and gathering societies compared to the agricultural societies based on Martin Harris’ article “Murders in Eden” and Jared Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the History of Human Race.”

The concept of free will is essential in topics related to choice. The way people live their lives is constructed by decisions they make on a daily basis, such as whether or not to attend a college classes or what job to choose in the future. But in “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard realizes that the concept of free will is not pure. Society has a tendency to drive an individual’s choice based on what is the norm. Through her observations of a weasel, Dillard makes a commentary on the relationship between people and free will. In “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard uses the analysis of a weasel to remind society about the often overlooked power of free will embedded in human nature.

Though man and beast are born into the same state of nature, they differentiate because man is able to act on free will while beasts choose or reject by instinct. For example, Rousseau states, "that no animal naturally makes war on man except in a case of self-defense or from extreme hunger" (83). Therefore, man can decide to avoid or accept an encounter even if it’s not for means of self-preservation while animals do not create conflict other than for self-preservation. Further Rousseau conveys that, "beasts cannot deviate from the laws which are prescribed to it, even when it might be advantageous for it" (87). Man tends to stray from the 'laws' that nature assigned him because of his ability to consummate decisions independently from those 'laws' designated by nature. The principles of behavior and instincts given by nature commands all animals and man, but by animals lacking freewill they have no other choice but to obey those commands. Furthermore, due to the fact that animals are restrained by the laws of nature, "a pigeon would die of hunger beside a dish filled with choice meats and a cat beside a pile of fruit or grains" (87). Though the food given to both pigeon and cat, if consumed would meet their nutritional needs, nature does not instinctively program them to do

Incontrovertibly, one of the first things one may notice upon reading the work, is the use of highly explicit imagery connecting her thoughts and ideologies. With these techniques, her whole impression of the essay establishes an adversary relationship between the natural world and the human world. In summary, the author imposes that with weasels, much more freedom is granted through instinctual living, rather than as humans, who live with choices. Through her vivid and truly descriptive imagery, one may see emphasize and glorification to the way of life these little creatures live. Dillard writes “I think I retrieved my brain from the weasel’s brain,” from this hyperbole, she greatly induces her extreme and genuine fascination with these weasels. This device ultimately emphasizes the central idea that we as humans would be better off living and thinking like weasels. When exploring future into the work, one may continue seeing this technique into play as Dillard states, “The man could in no way pry the tiny weasels off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasels dangling from his palm, and soak hi,

Though animals respond unquestioningly to instinct, human obedience to instinct implies choice. Dillard explains the choice to pursue your calling: “We could, you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience- even of silence- by choice” (1994, p. 110). Dillard states that humans all have a choice for what they end up pursuing. They have a reason to pursue it. Although the weasel only lives by instinct and does not have any reason, humans desire to understand their calling and pursuit it; not letting go until the calling is achieved. All animals follow their instincts, it is all they recognize to do: “I was seeing, and the weasel felt the yank of separation, the

Within Aldo Leopold’s Thinking Like a Mountain and Annie Dillard’s Living Like a Weasel there is a communal theme, which incorporates the conflict between people and nature. Throughout Dillard’s piece, she uses comparisons between the life of humans and the life of a wild weasel while applying the theme of freedom of choice. After an unexpected encounter with a weasel, Dillard concludes that humans can learn from the wild freedom of weasel. She states, “...I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (Dillard 8). In Aldo Leopold’s writing, his overall motive is to communicate to the reader that we humans must not destroy the wilderness, as

Feral Cats have become a large problem in Oregon, as well as surfacing across the nation. Feral Cats should be Trapped, Neutered, and Released instead of being Trapped and Killed. The Cats should only be euthanized in the case of irreparable diseases. These cats deserve animal liberation in the sense that they feel pain just as we as humans do, and we as humans possess the moral duty to prevent that pain. With a non-egalitarian view of Biocentric Individualism view on things we can determine the solution to the outbreak of feral cats.

The blank slate; The Modern Menial of the Human Nature is a relatively long book by Steven Pinker. This book is a brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature. The book is based on the premise that concepts and perspectives of the nature of human beings are to some extent basic ideas that we cannot do without. The author, Steven Pinker argues that almost all of us are born with innate characters depending on the genetic composition of our parents. He interrogates the nature of how human beings think, how we talk, how we can learn new things and even our general socialization. He explores most areas of reasoning using some sophisticated terms and analogy that are very thought to provoke and provides foundations for debates on the exact

4 Our current society being examined is one of bare necessities. If comparing a primordial society and civilized society, ours would currently be the former. Glaucon believed our primordial society resembled one that would be appropriate for a “community of pigs”.13 When asked by Socrates how he would construct it differently, he stated he would make

need and keep it to survive. But this does not fit in our current society. As Dawkins