All Animals are Created Equal Peter Singer

Introduction Utilitarianism: maximize pleasure and minimize pain for everyone Who does that involve? Every person (no, children aren’t persons, but they are worthy of moral consideration) Every entity with moral status Moral status: animals that experience pleasure and pain

Overall Strategy Singer’s overall strategy is to first examine discrimination in uncontroversial cases (e.g. sexism, racism, discrimination based on sexual orientation, etc) and then see if we are discriminating against animals As it turns out, most people are, in their everyday practices, discriminating against animals in the same way that a racist discriminates against a person of a different race

Basis for Discrimination What underlies discrimination? What principle are we violating when we discriminate against someone else?

Slavery of the Stupid? Unfortunately this will still lead to bad consequences for the individuals that are less well endowed. We might have to give those that are shown to be better in relevant respects (e.g. smarter) more respect than others. We might have slavery of those with low IQ’s.

Not Actually Equal Notice: Discrimination may occur even though there are obvious d Recognizing the equal moral worth of women may require giving them different things than we give men Women need pre-natal care, not men. We can’t base the fact that we should give all people equal consideration on the claim that they are actually equal in all respects. This is false. Some are larger, some smarter, some happier etc. Perhaps we could say the groups are equal though?

Genetic Differences Furthermore, we can’t even say that abilities etc. are distributed equally amongst the sexes etc. There may be genetic differences. “Equality is a moral ideal, not an assertion of fact” (Singer, 30)

Just because some of us are smarter than others doesn’t mean we can treat others poorly. We need to give people and animals those things that improve their well being.

Interests and Welfare What principle governs non-discriminatory behavior? Principle of Equal Consideration: Everyone’s interests deserve equal consideration. It doesn’t matter what abilities one possesses. This principle does not entail equal treatment Even though

Dogs are Different (but Equal) Recognizing that dogs are different from people doesn’t show that they have less moral worth. Recognizing the equal moral worth of dogs does not mean we owe them the right to vote.

Singer’s View The basic principle of equality is the equality of consideration Giving different species equal consideration may lead to different treatment and different rights

What entitles us to treat (less intelligent) animals poorly?

Bentham “The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?’ (Bentham) Ex. Stone and mouse

Infants and the Differently-Abled Infants can’t reason, or talk but we don’t think that we can treat them poorly because they lack these capacities. Similar things could be said about the differently-abled.

Pain and Rights The capacity to suffer is necessary and sufficient for equal moral consideration. We don’t need to appeal to rights to justify this conclusion.

Humans are speciesists Speciesism is discrimination against animals – one is a speciesist when one allow the interests of one’s own species to trump the greater interests of another species.

Knowledge of Death Some claim that animals don’t suffer because they can’t know that they will be killed.

But animals can suffer from poor living conditions or being shocked etc. this is enough to justify concern for their living conditions etc.

All of the Signs We can’t experience others’ pain but we can see the effects – behavioral, neurological, and verbal. Animals (especially mammals and birds) show all of the signs of pain that they can given their physiology. It is not simpler to assume that animals unlike humans do not feel pain.

Useful Protection Besides pain is useful for animals. It allows us to avoid things that damage our bodies

Emotions etc. Animals also have some emotions (fear, stress, etc.). Some are probably conscious. Language is not necessary for having pain and some animals can be taught a language.

Horses and Humans To give the interests of all equal consideration we should be no more inclined to cause an equal amount of pain to a horse than a human. Consider kidnapping people vs. animals in order to perform experiments on them. It wouldn’t be speciest to choose the animals It might still be immoral

One Form of Speciesism The most direct form of contact with members of other species is at meal-times: we eat them. In doing so, we treat them as a means to our ends There are other ways to satisfy our need for protein such as soy beans Ex. Hens, pigs, veal calves

A Second Form of Speciesm Experimentation is not always used for vital medical research which reduces human suffering Ex. Drug companies test products on animals; food additives; shampoo The possible benefits to mankind are either non-existent or remote: again, a clear indication of speciesism

Species-Membership We don’t think it is O.K. to kill infants even though some, even with intensive care, will never have the intellect of a dog. The fact that they are a member of our species is simply irrelevant. That is like saying it is O.K. to kill blacks but not whites because whites are white. One might say infants, the senile and the severely disabled can be killed at will, but this is implausible.

Death Singer concludes that the capacities of normal humans may provide reasons to save their lives over the lives of animals.

Pain He still believes, though, that because all animals have the capacity to feel pain we can’t choose to cause animals pain rather than humans.

In Conclusion… Singer warns us that the best minds can fall victim to a prevailing ideology Singer is a species egalitarian: he believes that humans and animals have equal moral standing