Quote:
Originally Posted by troymc
I like this question and would like to add:
What happens when an animal becomes inured? Has the suffering stopped? Has the morality changed?
Troy
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I think that to suffer (as in feel pain or great discomfort in body or mind) you need to be aware that you are suffering.
Using the defintion for inure at
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/inured.html - I'd say the suffering stops when that happens. Although morality doesn't change (i.e. we still want to avoid causing suffering), different behaviour might become appropriate to achieve that moral objective.
A human example could be causing suffering by releasing someone from an institution to which they've become completely habituated; even if they were reluctantly incarcerated in the first place.