draft 2 human nature and humanity

This topic submitted by brian forrester, Cat Fiscun ( forresbr@muohio.edu ) on 3/9/06. [ Human Nature Team: brian forrester, Cat Fiscun-Section: Cummins/Wolfe]

Introduction
Who is treated more like an animal, the human or the beast? The specific nature of this research project is to determine the treatment of our societyÕs homeless in comparison to the treatment of our homeless domesticated animals. We want to see what the overall consensus is on how society views theses two groups. We feel that much of our significant data will result from looking at both homeless shelters and animal shelters. By taking inquiry into the comparison of how these two institutions are Administered, budgeted, and what policies surround each organization. We theorize that our American culture takes care of and treats our abandoned, domesticated animals better than our fellow brethren who have fallen through the cracks of the system to the gutters of the streets. Our research is to determine the extent of which this is true.
The economy is a major factor for the homeless. Depending on the sate of our economic welfare in a big part determines how many homeless are present in America. Thomas Robert Malthus claims that poverty is natureÕs punishment for overpopulation. We have over exceeded the capacity of our economic system and have thus created a separate level of humanity on which we look down upon. America is a country of promise. We have created laws and policies that are centered around bringing the impoverished out of their whole to join the rest of society on a level playing field. Are these Concepts actually effective or are they implemented to create a deception on the actual reality and harshness of homelessness. Malthus rejects these laws and ideas by stating that ÒThey attempt to reverse the laws of nature; and it is in consequence to be expected, not only they should fail in their object but that the poor, who were intended to be benefited, should suffer most cruelly from the inhumane deceit thus practiced against them.Ó Is this the reality of our situation? Is it in our human nature to have this preordained group that we can dismiss on the premises of their societal role? Is it true that poorhouses, halfway houses, almshouses, etc. are institutions to help our poor back on their feet, or are they a measures that dissolute our society on the importance of this issue.
In comparison to the poor, what of the stray dogs and cats that roam the country. Why is it that we have decided that we must house these ÔlostÕ animals and create organizations that care for them. David Degrazia Claims that in order to understand our societal treatment of animals we have to question their moral status, meaning whether or not animals have morals and their decisions are derived from these morals. Have we created a moral status directed towards the treatment of a species that differs from our own?
Is it also possible that it is our preordained human nature to care for those things that are helpless? Genesis proclaimed ÒLet us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion overÉevery creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.Ó (Gen 1.26) Is this our human nature? Is it true that our guardianship over all living things installs in our unconscious the responsibility of their helplessness? Do the animals get treated better than ÔlostÕ humans?
A person unable to compete cannot afford the resources necessary to provide their basic necessities (shelter, clothing, food). We might consider a dog helpless in this sense and have more compassion and sympathy for their weakness. We expect a dog to be dependant on humans, but we do not expect other humans to depend on humans. When it comes to this deprivation, is our nature is to shun away from it in fear of falling to the gutter, or consider it a form of evolution, are ignorant of the problem, or deny the extent of the problem

Research Question
Is it our human nature to let go of the weak (poor/helpless) and promote the strong (rich/powerful)? In America do we consider the homeless worthless leftovers of humanity? Is it in our human nature to care for our own species over any other or have we been created with the instilled nature that it is more important to care for a domesticated animal when in need. By comparing when both humans and domesticated animals are at their lowest ends and have been driven to the life of homelessness, which then do we feel we need to care for the most.

Relevance of Research Question
Literature Review
Helen Ginsburg, Poverty, Economics, and Society -is a selection of essays from our founding economists provide the foundation theories on poverty. This will contribute to our predictions in relation to society and the role of our economy.
Robert H. Haveman, Poverty Policy and Poverty Research -contributes to our background in how our culture dictates what our government must do in relation to poverty.
Dorthy Buckton James, Analyzing Poverty Policy -is a critical analysis of the policies concerning the poor, which will help us when we include these polices into our paper.
Dale Rogers Marshall, The Politics of Participation in Poverty -concerns the parameters in which people are allotted to work with poverty. The rules governing how people participate will help us in analyzing human interaction with the homeless.
Michael Harrington, The New American Poverty -considers the sate of our economic welfare in a big part determines how many homeless are present in America.
Anuradha Mitta and Peter Rosset, America Needs Human Rights- is a compilation of essays on the economics of poverty.
Douglas R. Imig, Poverty and Power -talks about the hierarchy of society. Our society and culture have strong opinions and perspectives of poverty. It is because of these perspectives that many of the social barriers are present
Herbert J. Gans, The War Against The Poor -presents the discrimination and segregation of classes
Michael B. Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse -talks about the sociology of the poor houses and their surroundings.
John E. Tropman, Does America Hate the Poor? -He discusses the question of what America does with its poor people. Also, if Americans hate the poor, he answers why thatÕs so and where these feelings of hate come from.
Mark and Phyllis Pilisuk, How the White Poor Live -looks at the lives of Caucasian homeless and poor. It is an account of how people actually live in Appalachia. This reading is relevant to personal experiences to further support our findings.
Alison Hills, Do animals Have Rights?- Policies and government issues on animal treatment. We can compare these policies with poverty policies to support our hypothesis.
Rod and Pattie Strand, The Hijacking of the Humane Movement -look at the Humane movement and its effects. Supports our theories of people maintaining privileges for animals.
Tom Regan and Peter Singer, Animal Rights and Human Obligations -examining the ethical and moral parameters to human involvement with animals.
David Degrazia, Taking Animals Seriously -Another look at animal treatment is through the social and cultural aspects of American involvement with domesticated animals human perspective of animals
Dr. Michael W. Fox, Inhumane Society: The American Way of Exploiting Animals -suggests that our society is indecent in its animal treatment and the ways that humans take advantage of their vulnerability.
Frank R. Ascione and Phil Arkow, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse -is a comparison of animal and child abuse. It looks at the human behavior of treating vulnerable creatures and the feelings of power associated with that.
S. F. Sapontzis, Morals, Reasons, and Animals -is another look at the connection of humans and their moral treatment towards animals based on a variety of rationalizations and justifications.

Interdisciplinary Approach
Our study of human treatment is interdisciplinary through our different perspectives of the study. To answer whether our society treats the poor worse than our pets we must look at the structure of our society, the ethical laws concerning welfare of humans and animals, the condition and programs of the different facilities, as well as the final outcome of situation. To find these answers we will be considering many disciplines, utilize their information, and reanalyze their results. We will be looking at anthropology, sociology, ethics, law, as well as statistical data from existing reports as well as from our own surveys, and psychology. This process is interdisciplinary in the manner of evaluating our research and data.
Hypothesis
Due to our nature, we humans are more compassionate towards homeless domesticated animals than we are towards homeless humans. This is bases on our nature to be competitive, autonomous, and self interested within our own species. We were not preordained to support the underprivileged of our societies. We might consider a dog helpless in this sense and have more compassion and sympathy for their weakness. We expect a dog to be dependant on humans, but we do not expect other humans to depend on humans. When it comes to this deprivation, is it our nature to shun away from it in fear of falling to the gutter, or consider it a form of evolution, are ignorant of the problem, or deny the extent of the problem.
Predictions
We predict, through our surveys, interviews, and literature analysis, that people are less willing to help other humans than they are to help animals.
Specific Research Design
Our research will include a survey distributed to 100 Miami University students, interviews with administrators of animal and homeless shelters, as well as a literary review.
The survey will reveal the general attitude of homeless. The survey will question the students on the myths of homelessness and treatment of stray animals, whether these students would be more willing to help local homeless people or animals, as well as determining the general opinion of homeless people and how they are regarded. The survey will further support our findings from our literature review. The main purpose for the surveys is to measure peopleÕs willingness to help humans over animals as well as social misconceptions of AmericaÕs homeless.
Personal interviews with head administrators for local Cincinnati and Dayton shelters of the homeless and animals will be conducted. We will ask the same questions in our interviews to measure consistency between shelters and compare answers between humane societies and homeless shelters. The importance of the interviews lies in the magnitude of organization and administration that governs the two different types of shelters. Through the interviews we hope to gain an understanding of the degree of competence of each shelter. Do the animal shelters seem better organized and run than the homeless shelters? Are the facilities cleaner and modernized compared to homeless shelters?

Materials
This is a list of important materials we will be using during our research project.
Paper to print our surveys on
Actual people to survey
A car with gas so we can visit our chosen cites for interviews
A tape recorder
Pencil and paper
The research is to be performed by the two of us in unison. We feel that to adequately analyze and interpret our accumulated information we must approach it together. Our interviews will be performed together as well as collecting the surveys. We also have plans to take our compiled data and collectively analyze our observable findings. Once we have completed the observable analysis of our data, we will work together and compile our quantitative survey findings into a statistical numeric analysis. When we have completed these tasks we will report our results and develop a mutual conclusion on our proposed question.
Our statistical analysis will consist of the quantitative data we find through our survey. We will take our surveys statistical findings to create a scientific analysis, which we hope will support our stated claims in our introduction.
Research time line:
March 5-10th Pass out surveys
March 4-5 Interviews
March 27 Compile and analyze both forms of data
March 31 Report our results and conclusion in rough draft
April 10-14 Final Ending

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