Do you think it's immoral to step on bugs?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I’m 24, have a professional job, and I still tend to flatten a bug if I see it crawling around my feet. If I’m playing tennis and I see one on the court, I’ll be honest: it will probably get squashed under my shoe. I’ve never had a problem stepping on them, and I’ve stepped on a lot of them over the years.

I know that some people consider it wrong, but it seems pretty normal to me. Most of my friends don’t think twice about planting a foot over some busy anthill on the sidewalk in order to cause a little chaos, nor do I, and I’ve done that plenty of times. I can definitely think of more painful ways for a bug to die than getting instantly crushed under a gigantic sneaker.

Why would it be wrong? The rationale of “I do it because I can” might be the one used by bullies, and it holds true somewhat. Does that mean I view bugs as less significant than me? Well, yeah I guess I do. But is that necessarily untrue? Compared to them, I’m a giant.

2

Is it immoral to you? That’s what matters.

I used to step on bugs when I was younger and had quite a bit of fun with it. These days I wouldn’t do that unless I had a reason (like my mom freaking out that there is a bug in the house). I don’t like to take life if I don’t need to, but if you aren’t bothered by it, than step on as many bugs as you want.

3

I think I’d probably try to stop human-trafficking before I spent too much time worrying about the immorality of bug-squashing overmuch. It’s like stopping and debating “Hmm - if I use this fire-extinguisher, how will it contribute to global-warming…?” When your house, along with your wife and child, is burning down.

Bigger fish to fry etc. jus’ sayin’.

4

Wow, it is certainly immoral to let a good roach go to waste.

The key to the question, joking aside, is not if you did it, but did it deliberately, and why. What was your psychological intent? To simply kill because you could? There is a middle of the road.

5

I won’t intentionally step on a bug, unless it is some poisonous type of bug or some type of stinging/biting bug and it is in the house. Even then, I’d usually try to capture it in a cup and release it outside, or something, but it’s as good as dead if it doesn’t want to cooperate.

6

bugs are icky

should it be okay for me to feel icky? or can i just kill the bug and not feel as icky

or it could be a bee

those sting, gotta get those ones

or is its life more important?

if its indoors - its quite possible that it might die in a few days indoors

should i take it outside? at the risk of being stung? or the risk of having to touch the icky?

or should i leave it be? and let it die?

or should i put out some food and water in a dish so the bug can make a life for itself?

…

sometimes i kill bugs, and sometimes i don’t

when i kill bugs, i dont think much about it

when i dont, i’m questioning morals in a similar manner to this thread… or i’m actually afraid of the bug… or can’t get it

i’m not consistent in my decision, and i’m okay with that

perhaps its more of an emotional decision than i’d like it to be

7

I don’t think of it as moral or immoral–I simply cannot willfully kill another entity.

8

I am a god to that bug so I will mete out life or death, banishment or citizenship.

9

One wonders, where is the seed of empathy planted in the human soul? At what point is it not there? Why?
I think it is when, on some level, there is awareness of function, that we are responsible for life. Only then can one start to manage some form of respect for it.

10

I don’t think it’s immoral, but I seldom do it. Not because I think insects warrant rights, but because a fly or an ant are not harming me, so I won’t kill them.

11

But you don’t see, that is morality, for you are using “do unto others as they are doing to me.” You are applying, in regard to your actions, the Law of Reciprocity. You say it by your actions. Morality stems from fundamental linguistic principles. A = A. The foundation of a functional mind is the application of linguistic principles that are employed to effect human action. A parrot cannot do that. Someone who thinks by rote cannot do that.

In a metaphor, the mark on the head and the hands means, how you think determines what you do.

12

I did it when I was a small kid.

“Because I can,” is a simplistic analysis of why. I suspect I was playing God to a degree. The power, and the novelty, the drama of actually killing something without anyone ever knowing. It may have even been an extremely toned down situation similar to why serial killers do what they do, except not having spun out of control in a pathology – it was relegated to tiny, tiny bugs. Ants, essentially. Killing anything beyond a bug was reprehensible. I couldn’t have killed a frog, for instance. Another category for some arbitrary reasons that I won’t go into, but I think most readers identify, certainly the original poster.

Now as an adult, and one who likes to spend a lot of time mulling over issues of ethics and beauty, I don’t kill bugs – at least not for fun. If I found an ant in my house I would put it outside and wish it well.

The thought experiment that did it: imagine a being many times smarter and more powerful than us, deciding it was ok, or even fun, to kill us for no reason, simply because our sense of life and intellect is profoundly “small.”

Imagine how we would judge such a being.

I would judge it as ignorant, lacking imagination, narcissistic, ugly-souled and profoundly dangerous. If quick rehabilitation was impossible, I would want this being dead, because active killers of innocents must be stopped. I doubt ants think like this, but it doesn’t matter.

With this in mind, I stopped squashing ants for fun. (Maybe around the time I started liking girls?)

I’m not a believer in God, but then again, if the concept of a being of infinite intelligence and power had the mind to spare and even love us (a popular concept), then why would the concept of me loving and sparing a tiny bug have any less gravity?

That kind of God being a fiction (IMHO), only one of the above cases of astonishing beauty has the potential of occurring, and you and I have power to make it so. Mindfully sparing a bug makes the universe a slightly less hostile place. Not many would notice. But at least two would. The bug and me.

It all comes down to one question: If you had the power to make the Universe a less hostile, more mindful and sensitive place, even on a tiny scale, would you?

And consider, the smaller the creature, perhaps the MORE imagination, the MORE compassion one would need to have the sensitivity to find beauty in sparing it.

Perhaps sparing an ant is a test of humanity; a tiny vote for a gentler universe.

Whether it’s moral is another story.

So much of what we do boils down to aesthetics. Through the prism of mature analysis, killing bugs is ugly, like the ersatz beef flavor on a Big Mac – it’s something sensibilities outgrow. I prefer aged, high quality filet mignon. (I fear I’ve opened a can of works with that metaphor – the issue of killing animals for luxury-food.)

Good luck with your own decisions. Fuck morals. Spare the bug because it feels good to do so. If it feels good to do so, you would be a welcome guest at my table. If not, than not.

13

The human mind is the latest environmental acquisition system to evolve, and it takes the longest to mature.

So, it is more dysfunctional the younger we are. That is not unusual, but a fact of life.

14

Or as the laymen say more economically: kids are stupid.

By human mind do you really mean human judgement or sense of ethical responsibility?

Clearly the human “mind,” is present in infancy, and the human mind’s subtlety – not lack of subtlety – is the culprit for why so many of us have killed bugs for no evident reason.

No other creature is capable of killing on such an indirectly purposeful level.

A cat that toys with a mouse has potential to eat the mouse, so the killing is more directly purposeful, it relates on some level to a need to survive. A monkey, far more primitive than us, doesn’t lay in the grass wistfully with a magnifying glass on a sunny day, making sport of killing. That requires a sophisticated, bizarre, creative, glorious, ordinary average human mind. The subtext runs deep.

In my example above, I noted that my acquisition system of “judgement and right behavior” happened around the time I liked girls, i.e. a reproductive system of acquisition. Perhaps they happen simultaneously for good reason. Heightened empathy, sensitivity and logical awareness of consistency in your value system, or any system for that matter, may increase odds of successful mating.

Unfortunately a dude could want to shag long before he has good judgement to not kill bugs, and sadly there’s no shortage of proof that this happens – look at the world today and the ugliness of certain people; how they treat people like ants.

The ocular system might never develop in the case of congenitally blind, yet the human mind would grow unchecked.

In the end, it’s all ocular. the desire to spar a bug is, in the end, about seeing.

15

The mind functions linguistically. But as you say a cup is a cup. But some cups grow to be jugs. It is known that certain judgmental abilities do not become functional until certain ages.

If you have done any reading on prison psychology, it is noted that many reforms happen at around 36. The mind, cultivated, takes a long time to grow. Some are senile by the time they reach puberty, some never are.

16

And some jugs hold wine, others hold water.

I think you mean the human mind. Unless you think other creatures don’t have minds. In which case it would argue well to kill bugs.

The “mind,” functions linguistically needs qualification. But it seems you have a fetish for brevity. Did you like Bruce Lee as a child? Unlike Jackie, Bruce was all about the one punch scenario. BOOM. Done. BOOM. Done. I can see the appeal in this, but I don’t think it works that way in real life.

17

You should push my internet button, to really see how brief I am. It is right next to the pm button.

You can also find me on YouTube, same SN.

18

Perhaps we should all think twice before placing judgements on that which is seemingly brief, incomplete and without depth, be it the soul of an ant or the post of Philosopher8659.

19

It really is a bugs life, you know.

One of the things I always wanted in life, a woman who could see when I was leaving others behind in thought and could take the time to explain things. Such ladies are real treasures and not meant for mortals, I think.

I was in Thailand when Bruce Lee died. I do have his works, and Jackies also.

20

:slight_smile: