🐷Speciesism

Definition

Speciesism is a prejudiced and discriminatory belief that someone's interests can be disregarded simply because of their species. Speciesists believe that it's ethical to deny moral consideration purely because of species (or are apathetic to it).

Moral Relevancy

While we can point out many arbitrary differences between species, for the purposes of philosophy those differences would have to be morally relevant. By the same reasoning that skin colour is an irrelevant trait by which to grant moral consideration, so is having or not having feathers.

Interests vs Individual Needs

Just like anti-sexism is not saying cis men should have a right to an abortion, anti-speciesism is not saying pigs should be able to have driving licences. Anti-speciesism is not saying to pretend species don't exist. Speciesism is saying that moral value should not be determined by species alone. Instead, sentience is the relevant trait for moral consideration.

Anti-speciesism, like all arms of equality, is asking for conscious interests to be considered equally, and to disregard destructive doctrines that we've outgrown such as speciesism.

Ableism

I personally used to worry that judging moral value based on sentience was a form of ableism, however this is not the case. Speciesism is disregarding someone's interests simply because of their species. Ableism is disregarding someone's interests simply because of their ability.

If something doesn't have interests, then its interests can't be ignored because they don't exist.

If we're doing moral calculus based on who has more interests, then their interests aren't being ignored either. Rather, we are considering everyone's interests, and where they are incompatible we are doing the best we can.

Who Has Interests

Sentience is the minimum required trait for someone to have interests at all.

🧠Sentience