DavidAgain comments on The Ethical Status of Non-human Animals - Less Wrong

9 Post author: syllogism 09 January 2012 12:07PM

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Comment author: DavidAgain 10 January 2012 06:50:48PM 1 point [-]

This rather depends on whether intelligence relates to the sorts of feelings involved. I'm not sure we can have an absolute divide between 'sentient' and 'self-aware' by your measurement, and I think there might be some other meaningful question about whether more intelligent species have a wider/deeper range of preferences. So neither I nor a sheep likes having a leg crushed, but the pain I feeled is combined with a sense of regret about what I'll miss out in in life, shock to my sense of identity, whatever.

I'm not sure if this is just a way to try to justify my inuitive presumption in favour of humans and then more intelligent animals, though.