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

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

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (87)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: peter_hurford 19 February 2012 09:02:53AM 2 points [-]

Put aside my earlier notions of "inequal" and "unfair"... I don't think they're necessary for us to proceed on this issue.

You said these things were "bad when they on net hurt people". I noticed you said people, and not non-human animals, but you have said that you put at least some value on non-human animals.

Likewise, you've agreed that the pro-friend, pro-family preference only carries so far. But how far does the pro-human preference go? Assuming we agree on (1) the quality of life of certain nonhuman animals as they are made for food, (2) the capabilities for these nonhuman animals to feel a range of pain, and (3) the change in your personal quality of life by adopting habits to avoid most to all of this food (three big assumptions), then it seems like you're fine with a significant measure of spiecieism.

I guess if you're reaction is "so what", we might just have rather different terminal values, though I'm kind of surprised that would be the case.

Comment author: [deleted] 19 February 2012 09:08:48AM *  1 point [-]

You said these things were "bad when they on net hurt people". I noticed you said people, and not non-human animals, but you have said that you put at least some value on non-human animals.

That was in the context of thinking about sexism and racism. I assumed they have little impact on non-humans.

But how far does the pro-human preference go? Assuming we agree on (1) the quality of life of certain nonhuman animals as they are made for food, (2) the capabilities for these nonhuman animals to feel a range of pain, and (3) the change in your personal quality of life by adopting habits to avoid most to all of this food (three big assumptions), then it seems like you're fine with a significant measure of spiecieism.

I guess if you're reaction is "so what", we might just have rather different terminal values, though I'm kind of surprised that would be the case.

I could be underestimating how much animals suffer (I almost certainly am to a certain existent simply because it is not something I have researched, and less suffering is the comforting default answer), you could be overestimating how much you care about animals being in pain due to anthropomorphizing them somewhat.

Comment author: peter_hurford 19 February 2012 06:46:02PM 0 points [-]

you could be overestimating how much you care about animals being in pain due to anthropomorphizing them somewhat.

Definitely a possibility, though I try to eliminate it.