Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-06-10]: What do you think about otters? Are they lovable? Or are they "necrophiliac, serial-killing fur monsters of the sea"? Writer Dylan Matthews explained various things about otters, and listed several reasons why the animals are, in Matthews' opinion, "jerks": they kill baby otters; they have (on rare occasions) attacked people, monkeys, and alligators; and they sometimes copulate with dead otters (and baby seals). [1] What we see as "lovely" could be plainly "monstrous". It may seem funny in this case, but our ability to have wrong perceptions about even the most obvious things is astounding. Nature is not cute. Nature is inherently violent. How weird that we think something - ANYTHING - is cute... Could it be that something in us is... unnatural?
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