We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Analysis

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Imagine if animals were free to roam everywhere and we lived amongst animals. In the novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Fowler, Fowlers asks her readers to think about whether using animals to conduct experiments is ethical? She explains that many people believe that the crucial difference between humans and the rest of the animal is we believe that we are the only animals that have a theory of mind, which is the ability to attribute mental states such as desires, intents, or beliefs, to oneself and others also to understand that other beliefs, desires, and perspectives are different from one’s own. Rather this ethical framework has been proven wrong and many people still believe it. Chimps have shown to have a theory of …show more content…

When you are young you do not really have a choice in the situation you grow up in. Imagine being raised with a chimp; to you that was normal but to everyone else that was crazy. Therefore, embarrassed to share the fact that you grew up with a monkey in fear being ridiculed or rejected from people. The ethical issues that arose throughout the novel were that Lowell, Rosemary, and Fern were forced into an experiment against their will which did not maximize their happiness and minimize their pain (utilitarian approach) but rather did the opposite. One of the ways, Fowlers expressed her viewpoints is using the character of Lowell. Since Fern was brought into their family when Lowell was very young; he did not have the choice to grow up with a chimp. Therefore, depriving him the chance to grow up as a “normal human”; which is the way he would have grown up if he did not have Fern as a little sister. When Fern was taken away it caused him to become very angry and leave his family to try to save her from her captives; as her older brother, it was his job to protect

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