Ethical Reasoning Reading Reflection Paper

A reading for Eric Severson’s Ethics course 1

Animal Liberation

Peter Singer

A few excerpts:

“Animal Liberation” may sound more like a parody of other liberation movements than a

serious objective. The idea of “The Rights of Animals” actually was once used to parody the

case for women’s rights. When Mary Wollstonecraft published her Vindication of the Rights

of Women in 1792, her views were widely regarded as absurd, and before long, an anonymous

publication appeared entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes. The author of this satirical

work (now known to have been Thomas Taylor, a distinguished Cambridge philosopher) tried

to refute Mary Wollstonecraft’s arguments by showing that they could be carried one stage

further. If the argument for equality was sound when applied to women, why should it not be

applied to dogs, cats, and horses? …

A reading for Eric Severson’s Ethics course 2

When we say that all human beings, whatever their race, creed, or sex, are equal, what is it

that we are asserting? Like it or not, we must face the fact that humans come in different

shapes and sizes; they come with different moral capacities, different intellectual abilities,

different amounts of benevolent feeling and sensitivity to the needs of others, different

abilities to communicate effectively, and different capacities to experience pleasure and pain.

In short, if the demand for equality were based on the actual equality of all human beings, we

would have to stop demanding equality. …

The existence of individual variations that cut across the lines of race or sex, however,

provides us with no defense at all against a more sophisticated opponent of equality, one who

proposes that, say, the interests of all those with IQ scores below 100 be given less

consideration than the interests of those with ratings over 100. Perhaps those scoring below

the mark would, in this society, be made the slaves of those scoring higher. Would a

hierarchical society of this sort really be so much better than one based on race or sex? I think

not. But if we tie the moral principle of equality to the factual equality of the different races or

sexes, taken as a whole, our opposition to racism and sexism does not provide us with any

basis for objecting to this kind of inegalitarianism. …

Fortunately, there is no need to pin the case for equality to one particular outcome of a

scientific investigation. … There is no logically compelling reason for assuming that a factual

difference in ability between two people justifies any difference in the amount of

consideration we give to their needs and interests. The principle of the equality of human

beings is not a description of an alleged actual equality among humans: It is a prescription of

how we should treat human beings.

Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the reforming utilitarian school of moral philosophy,

incorporated the essential basis of moral equality into his system of ethics by means of the

formula: “Each to count for one and none for more than one.” In other words, the interests of

every being affected by an action are to be taken into account and given the same weight as

A reading for Eric Severson’s Ethics course 3

the like interests of any other being. …

It is an implication of this principle of equality that our concern for others and our readiness to

consider their interests ought not to depend on what they are like or on what abilities they may

possess. Precisely what our concern or consideration requires us to do may vary according to

the characteristics of those affected by what we do: concern for the well-being of children

growing up in America would require that we teach them to read; concern for the well-being

of pigs may require no more than that we leave them with other pigs in a place where there is

adequate food and room to run freely. But the basic element—the taking into account of the

interests of the being, whatever those interests may be—must, according to the principle of

equality, be extended to all beings, black or white, masculine or feminine, human or

nonhuman.

Thomas Jefferson, who was responsible for writing the principle of the equality of men into

the American Declaration of Independence, saw this point. It led him to oppose slavery even

though he was unable to free himself fully from his slaveholding background. He wrote in a

letter to the author of a book that emphasized the notable intellectual achievements of Negroes

in order to refute the then common view that they have limited intellectual capacities: “Be

assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of

the doubts I myself have entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to

them by nature, and to find that they are on a par with ourselves … but whatever be their

degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to

others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the property or person of others.”

Similarly, when in the 1850s the call for women’s rights was raised in the United States, a

remarkable black feminist named Sojourner Truth made the same point in more robust terms

at a feminist convention: “They talk about this thing in the head; what do they call it?

[“Intellect,” whispered someone nearby.] That’s it. What’s that got to do with women’s rights

or Negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be

A reading for Eric Severson’s Ethics course 4

mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?”

It is on this basis that the case against racism and the case against sexism must both ultimately

rest; and it is in accordance with this principle that the attitude that we may call “speciesism,”

by analogy with racism, must also be condemned. Speciesism—the word is not an attractive

one, but I can think of no better term—is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests

of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species. It should be

obvious that the fundamental objections to racism and sexism made by Thomas Jefferson and

Sojourner Truth apply equally to speciesism. If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does

not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to

exploit nonhumans for the same purpose?

Many philosophers and other writers have proposed the principle of equal consideration of

interests, in some form or other, as a basic moral principle; but not many of them have

recognized that this principle applies to members of other species as well as to our own.

Jeremy Bentham was one of the few who did realize this. In a forward-looking passage written

at a time when black slaves had been freed by the French but in the British dominions were

still being treated in the way we now treat animals, Bentham wrote:

“The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never

could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already

discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be

abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be

recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os

sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the

faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as

well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week or even a month, old.

But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?

A reading for Eric Severson’s Ethics course 5

nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

In this passage, Bentham points to the capacity for suffering as the vital characteristic that

gives a being the right to equal consideration. … If a being suffers, there can be no moral

justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of

the being, the principle of equality requires that [his or her] suffering be counted equally with

the like suffering—insofar as rough comparisons can be made—of any other being. …

Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of

their own race when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of

another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favoring the interests of their own

sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater

interests of members of other species. The pattern is identical in each case.

Most human beings are speciesists. … [O]rdinary human beings—not a few exceptionally

cruel or heartless humans, but the overwhelming majority of humans—take an active part in,

acquiesce in, and allow their taxes to pay for practices that require the sacrifice of the most

important interests of members of other species in order to promote the most trivial interests

of our own species.…

Even if we were to prevent the infliction of suffering on animals only when it is quite certain

that the interests of humans will not be affected to anything like the extent that animals are

affected, we would be forced to make radical changes in our treatment of animals that would

involve our diet, the farming methods we use, experimental procedures in many fields of

science, our approach to wildlife and to hunting, trapping and the wearing of furs, and areas of

entertainment like circuses, rodeos, and zoos. As a result, a vast amount of suffering would be

avoided.