I was editing and revising the last entry and thinking about relationships and knowledge. First, the universe, I believe, is hiererarchical; the hierarchy is built in, so to speak. In other words, much as I value Simon and the other creatures here, I recognize that people are inherently more valuable than animals; some animals are inherently more valuable than others. We make pets out of Guinea pigs and gerbils; I would affirm that they too are valuable and deserve to be treated with love and care; however, they are not as inherently valuable as dogs. For one thing their capacity for understanding and affection is severely limited compared to a dog.
For a better grasp of my idea of hierarchy, think about the difference between Mary's spring-blooming, colorful azalea (in photo) and Simon. The azalea is valuable, economically and inherently. So is Simon, economically and inherently, though Simon is a rescue dog, if you can believe that. Apparently his former owner moved out of her apartment and left him there, without food or water! (Her landlord rescued him first; no wonder Simon has issues!). Still, Simon has economic value; we could sell him, though the very thought makes my stomach turn. Schuster, however, we paid for, though at a reduced price because he was already eight months old. (At least that was the lady's reason for the reduced price; we bought him in the Cracker Barrel parking lot, out of a trunk! No returns possible! Ha!) Economic value is determined by "the market," what a thing can be bought and sold for. Inherent value requires intelligence, right reason, intuition, the capacity to see and understand the nature of reality. There's the rub!
Right reason is not simply the capacity to think from one idea to the next; it is also the capacity to perceive the truth from which to think. Children learn those principles and either affirm them or reject them as they mature. If you tell a child that she should honor her father and mother, and she says "why?" You have to choose: do you believe in a universe where value is inherent? Then the answer might be, because it is the right thing to do. If you are a relativist or naturalist, or a thoroughly modern parent, you try to give reasons and "explain," and hope the child buys it. Of course, right reason also acknowledges that children are, first of all, to be loved and cared for too.
If you would like a glimpse into an "inhuman" human mind where the reasoner does not perceive the inherent value of children, read Jonathan Swift's very reasonable A Modest Proposal. Really. It is a brilliant work, written just at the time when our western culture's idea of Reason was undergoing a crucial change; we probably do not teach it or read it anymore. I readily admit that my views on the nature of truth, beauty, and goodness are counter to most of the views inherent in our cultural climate of opinion. Yet, I hold them. I am a Catholic Christian.
Well, the day is slipping away and I cannot remember why I started this essay, but people ought to know where a writer takes his stand, even though that ground should come through in everything he writes. Dante makes personal betrayal the ninth circle of Hell. Sometimes I have trouble leaving home for a while without the creatures, for I seem to see their perception of our "betrayal" in leaving them behind in their eyes. After all, we could be going for a walk. It is even worse as Schuster goes willingly into his crate (we used to have to chase him down), Simon pokes his head slightly out from under the blanket, and Frollie and Dexter refuse to look at us. However, we love the dogs, but the human world, while it includes their world, is considerably more complex, and valuable. They know that too, somehow, for their enthusiasm when we return is exuberant and unbounded. All is immediately forgiven.
I am curious what Wikipedia or the "internet" might have to say about "right reason"; C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image has a good short section, written with his usual clarity, on right reason in the Middle Ages. He refers to St. Thomas Aquinas; how could one do better?
I also remember a paragraph I encountered in the 10 November Meditation by Pope John Paul II; note the key words in the final part of this very precise, essentially periodic sentence--"discoveries" and "values enclosed in everything created":
"This fundamental truth is written very profoundly in the Word of divine Revelation: Man, created in God's image, participates in the Creator's work through his labor and, to the degree of his possibilities, continues in a certain sense to develop and complete it by advancing more and more in discovery of the resources and values enclosed in every thing created." (Prayers and Devotions: 365 Daily Meditations)
The Pope, as one would expect, simply assumes the idea of inherent value, value that can be discovered and learned, value that is inherent in the creation because God made the creation that way.