Consider the Lobster 3 Flashcards
epistemology
the theory of knowledge, esp. with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
“Since pain is a totally subjective mental experience, we do not have direct access to anyone or anything’s pain but our own; and even just the principles by which we can infer that others experience pain and have a legitimate interest in not feeling pain involve hard-core philosophy-metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, ethics.”
metaphysics
the philosophical study whose object is to determine the real nature of things—to determine the meaning, structure, and principles of whatever is insofar as it is.
“Since pain is a totally subjective mental experience, we do not have direct access to anyone or anything’s pain but our own; and even just the principles by which we can infer that others experience pain and have a legitimate interest in not feeling pain involve hard-core philosophy-metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, ethics.”
stupor
a state of near-unconsciousness or insensibility: a drunken stupor.
“However stuporous the lobster is from the trip home, for instance, it tends to come alarmingly to life when placed in boiling water.”
pheromones
nounZoology
a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal, esp. a mammal or an insect, affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its species.
“Lobsters communicate via pheromones in their urine and don’t have anything close to the vocal equipment for screaming, but the myth’s very persistent-which might, once again, point to a low-level cultural unease about the boiling thing.”
ganglion
n. pl. ganglia
dense group of nerve-cell bodies present in most animals above the level of cnidarians.
“But the problem with the knife method is basic biology: Lobsters’ nervous systems operate off not one but several ganglia, a.k.a. nerve bundles, which are sort of wired in series and distributed all along the lobster’s underside, from stem to stern. And disabling only the frontal ganglion does not normally result in quick death or unconsciousness.”
opioids
noun
an opiumlike compound that binds to one or more of the three opioid receptors of the body.
“Lobsters do not, on the other hand, appear to have the equipment for making or absorbing natural opioids like endorphins or enkephalins, which are what more advanced nervous systems use to try to handle intense pain.”
endorphins
“Lobsters do not, on the other hand, appear to have the equipment for making or absorbing natural opioids like endorphins or enkephalins, which are what more advanced nervous systems use to try to handle intense pain.”
enkephalins
n. either of two pentapeptides with opiate and analgesic activity that occur naturally especially in the brain and have a marked affinity for opiate receptors
“Lobsters do not, on the other hand, appear to have the equipment for making or absorbing natural opioids like endorphins or enkephalins, which are what more advanced nervous systems use to try to handle intense pain.”
analgesia
n.
the inability to feel pain
“From this fact, though, one could conclude either that lobsters are maybe even more vulnerable to pain, since they lack mamalian nervous systems’ built-in analgesia, or, instead, that the absence of natural opioids implies an absence of the really intense pain-sensations that natural opioids are designed to mitigate.
analgesic
any drug that relieves pain selectively without blocking the conduction of nerve impulses, markedly altering sensory perception, or affecting consciousness. Analgesics may be classified into two types: anti-inflammatory drugs, which alleviate pain by reducing local inflammatory responses; and the opioids, which act on the brain.
anasthetic
any agent that produces a local or general loss of sensation, including pain. Anesthetics achieve this effect by acting on the brain or peripheral nervous system to suppress responses to sensory stimulation. The unresponsive state thus induced is known as anesthesia. General anesthesia involves loss of consciousness, usually for the purpose of relieving the pain of surgery. Local anesthesia involves loss of sensation in one area of the body by the blockage of conduction in nerves.
pentapeptides
a polypeptide that contains five amino acid residues
peptide
are biologically occurring short chains of amino acid monomers linked by peptide (amide) bonds.
polypeptide
a linear organic polymer consisting of a large number of amino-acid residues bonded together in a chain, forming part of (or the whole of) a protein molecule.
