On Philosophy

If you couldn't tell by now, I'm a really big fan of philosophy. Unless this is your first article, which would be a little awkward considering this is also the unofficial end of a trilogy of articles that have been coming out the past couple of weekends. Those articles were about asking the "big questions" around animal autonomy and ownership. Some of the stuff that I think it's easy to shy away from talking about because the scope of the questions is just so massive. Thankfully, that's exactly what philosophy is for! There are lots of ways to define philosophy, but my favorite has always been this.
 
 
Philosophy is the art of answering questions that don't have answers.
 
 
While there will definitely be some people out there that disagree, I feel like this really summarizes what philosophy is. Does god exist? Who knows. Is morality real? Not really. Do we exist? Probably. All of those are interesting questions to ask, but real philosophy isn't necessarily interested in trying to find a definitive answer. It's more about using the question itself as a jumping off point to explore other ideas. It's theory and ideas and concepts and that's all well and cool and good, but I think it's important to keep that distinction in mind. 
 
 
Another example of a philosophical question would be "What would life be like if we never domesticated dogs?" It's interesting to think about. Would we have valued other animals more, or do you think the ability for dogs and humans to live together predicated a lot of the other ideas around human involvement in animal breeding. Another question might be "Assuming we see animal domestication as unethical, what would be the solution?" While we're asking for an answer here, it'd be the same as asking "how do we achieve world peace?" You can make a plan, but it's philosophy. An idea. Not a real answer. 
 
 
Like I said at the top, I love philosophy, but I think it's very easy to fall into what I call "philosophy traps". A 'philosophy trap' is when we get so lost in exploring unanswerable 'what ifs' that we forget what we're doing in the first place. There's a huge disconnect between what philosophy is trying to achieve, and what real life is, and when you forget you're doing philosophy and take it too seriously, you fall into the trap. Say that you're asking whether or not reality is a simulation. It's an interesting question, and there's technically no way to answer it. But, because there's no way to know for certain, living your life based off the idea that you could be living in a simulation is pointless because you'll never know for sure. 
 
 
Or, say you're talking about moral philosophy. If someone kills your husband, are you morally justified in killing them in return? There's a million different answers and possibilities and scenarios and follow up questions, and that's the fun part of the philosophy. But, if you take it too seriously, and you have to face this question in real life, then it starts getting used as a justification. Then people can come up with situation where it's morally correct to murder someone, and since it's all just philosophy, different people are going to have different answers. 
 
 
If you're not into philosophy, I hope this all still makes sense to you, because it's going to be important for the point that I'm trying to make here. Philosophy is a lot like AI in a lot of ways. You can talk to it and ask it questions and you can get it to do some really cool and fun stuff, but you need to keep the fact that you're talking to an AI in mind the whole time, or else you end up with AI psychosis and explode your brain.  
 
 
This is something that I think people can forget in the zoo community sometimes. There are SO many problems that face animals in our world, both zoo related and not. And some of those problems have existed for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. It sucks that we can own another living being. It sucks that we bred species into being walking meat sacks for us. It sucks that we're destroying the planet to keep ourselves going at the cost of so many habitats and species in the world. 
 
 
But, to try and say those are the issues that you're trying to fight against is a philosophy trap. Like someone saying that they want to create a world where World War 2 never happened. It's a noble goal, but it's also not a real goal. It's getting lost in the trap. If your goal as an activist is to end animal ownership in its entirety, it's also an extremely noble goal, but it's not real. It's just the philosophy trap. You ask "What would a world look like without animal exploitation" and then get lost in an answer. It's the same with goals like "I want to get rid of sadists." Sadists are a fact of life unfortunately. To say that the goal is to just make them all disappear isn't a real goal, it's another philosophical trap. 
 
 
And the reason that these traps are so insidious is because it can be really hard to realize that you've fallen into the trap. Philosophy traps are black holes. They can take all the time, energy and effort that you put into them, but nothing changes. You're shadow boxing. If anything, you can even end up hurting the cause you believe in, because other people can tell when you're fighting for impossible goals. 
 
 
That's not to say that making the world better for animals is an "impossible" goal, it's just important to stop making it a question of philosophy, and more a question of practicality. If we spend all day every day arguing about ideas, we never actually make any tangible changes, and that's something that I'm afraid it's really easy to fall into. Especially for zoos that are smart and have lots of great ideas, but don't know how to actually facilitate those ideas. It's a lot easier to sit on your couch and talk about philosophy than it is to actually do something. There is absolutely room for philosophy in the zoo community. I love philosophy. I love it a lot. I'm always excited to talk about some of these big picture questions. But I want that to be a hobby. Something we can do as a fun "what if". Not the main focus. 
 
 
So, how do we actually change things? Well, by bringing these ideas into the real world. By anchoring with reality. If the problem that we're trying to solve is animal ownership, trying to say "well people just shouldn't own animals" is just going to spin your wheels and get you nowhere. But, we can get more specific. What are the problems with animal ownership? How can we address those actual issues? How can we teach people about animal autonomy, or about treating the animals in their lives better? What can we actually practically do to make some kind of real world change? We can never take back what we did to cows, but we can teach people about the problem, and encourage people to change their diets. We can try to find ways to move people away from so much meat in their diets and to make more plant based choices. Those things are real. They're things we can actually do. That's not philosophy, it's reality. 
 
 
Sometimes we need to stop and realize that the things we're talking about. The things that we care about. They're pointless. They aren't doing anything. It's hard. I get that. It can be so easy to live in a trap and never even realize it. But, if you really want to change the world, or achieve your goals, taking the time to understand what traps you might be in is the most important step. 
 
 
If you think you might be in a philosophical trap, here's something you can do to figure it out. First of all, take a look at the concept that you're grappling with. Try and define it as much as possible. Figure out how to define the problem in one sentence. Then, brain storm how you would solve that problem. No theory here. Real, actual solutions that you personally are capable of achieving. If you realize that the problem you're trying to solve doesn't have direct solutions, break it down another level. Say your issue is that animal exploitation exists. There is no first order solution for that problem. So, instead, take it a step back. Say that your issue becomes that you don't like that animal testing exists. Now, that's something that's more tangible. You can fight against that. That's practical, not philosophical. Is having a pet "evil"? Is animal eugenics bad? The real answer is, does it matter? We live here and now, we need to solve the problems in that context. 
 
 
There are so many amazing, capable people within the zoo community, and we can do so much good for the animals and for other zoos in the world. We can make this planet a better place for all of us, even more so if we do it together. So let's figure out what we want, make a plan, and really go for it. Instead of philosophizing about what a better world could look like, let's make it happen. It might not be perfect. It might be messy and hard and still bad in some ways, but I would much rather start walking in the right direction than get stuck dreaming about what the world could be. 
 
 
I love philosophy, but want to change reality. 
 
 
 
Article written by Tarro (January 2026)
Questions, comments or concerns? Check out our Matrix server! https://join.zooey.pub