"Man’s standard of value, say the mystics of spirit, is the pleasure of God, whose standards are beyond man’s power of comprehension and must be accepted on faith"
Of course, Rand considers Reason, Purpose, and Self-Esteem as the essential values of all (rational) individuals. Animals that act on instinct cannot properly be said to act with purpose as they do not have the sort of intention that reason points to. Still, I suppose it does no harm to say that the wolf acted with purpose to kill a deer to feed his hunger, or the deer outran the wolf to stay alive to eat some food and mate, and so forth. What we can say with near certainty is that the wolf held no purpose in terms of assisting the herd nor the deer a purpose in assisting the pack. All activities have consequences. The consequences for billions of species has been extinction. It was not intended that way. Nor was it intended any other way. Evolution is a natural mechanism that favors a species which can adapt. Adaptation in the animal kingdom is predicated upon surviving and producing offspring. The wolf does not have a "purpose" in pulling down the weak deer, of course. Indeed, the pack would be far better fed by pulling down the big strong buck--but they take what they can get.
Some people find it mystical or awesome that interaction between species appears to favor survival. It is not awesome. Extinction is the default. Survival is the anomaly. When prey and predator depend very closely on one another, the supply and demand will be balanced in a natural fashion--at least until one or both go extinct. The wolves, of course NEED the prey, whereas the deer do not need the predators in any way. The deer population will thin out when food is scarce even after the wolves have gone extinct or become pet puppies.
I spoke to someone once who thought that mosquitoes had a great "purpose" because some species of mosquito thinned out the population of various species. He did not say what the purpose of the others was. I guess just to ruin outdoor leisure for people and to put cattle off their milk.. Who knows! Mystics always have an answer for these things. ;-) |
