I am calling out pervasive, implicit, if not explicit, sexual harassment and clear sexual discrimination. His sexual interest should not be a requirement for his mentorship or the allotment of prestigious co-writing assignments to women, as it is not for men. Peter Singer’s dedication to that field, and his ability to attract animal advocacy donors to its biometrics, has bogged our movement down in welfare reforms when true change was on the horizon.
One criticism of sentientism is that it implies that some of our current practices (e.g., industrial animal agriculture and the use of animals in biomedical research) are deeply problematic. In 1975 there weren’t many good vegetarian or vegan cookbooks so it made sense to include recipes. Then, as that changed, I didn’t think people needed the recipes any more so I took them out. Both vegan recipes from our childhoods that we still make and then things we have started cooking since becoming mostly vegan.
I had been hoping for help with funding, but, after demeaning my work, he gave me tips for adjusting my DawnWatch alert system in order to prove myself worthy of the funding for which he had happily recommended me just 18 months earlier, before the argument about our hurtful sexual history. I told him I could not move forward with that dynamic, and I filed suit. I filed under the single clause of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, because, as he well knows, I was unaware that California Civil Code Section 51.9 allows for sexual harassment outside of traditional employment situations. But that initial suit included the same facts as those in the amended complaint, which rightly included Sexual Harassment. As I was putting together this essay, another piece by Singer came out, this one in the Los Angeles Times, where the animal-concerned editors at that paper at least made sure Singer focused on animals rather than climate change. Singer notes “there is now strong evidence that fish can feel pain,” while nevertheless grammatically treating fish as objects with the pronoun “it.
If there are animals that have higher cognitive capacities than some humans, there’s no reason to say that the humans have more worth or moral status simply because they are human. Theories of moral considerability can help us answer a variety of practical ethical questions, but they can’t answer those questions by themselves. When a famous man, only tangentially involved in our movement at the time, puts his name on the work of women devoted to it, and puts his name first, he continues to get writing assignments on animal issues, as editors view him as the leading voice. We are currently hearing his actual voice on his book tour – a voice for animal welfare but not rights, for some animal experimentation, and for eating animal products and even some animals when veganism is inconvenient.
Rights and permissions
Importantly, if one successfully appeals, the case goes back to the same judge. As we litigated, I had no idea that ours, Judge Donna Geck, appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, had faced a recall effort in 2022. She was accused by numerous plaintiffs of bias in favor of “well connected and well-funded” men against the women they battled in court. Without getting too heavily into trashing the judge, I will note my utter lack of surprise upon learning about the recall effort. If you visit my YouTube channel, you’ll find loads of media appearances, including a 40 minute interview with New Zealand’s most popular radio host, Kim Hill, which I would love you to listen to.
Which animals deserve moral consideration?
I love that example because Guide Dogs for the Blind breeds Labradors, many of whom don’t make the cut and end up needing regular homes, while thousands of dogs whose temperaments would be perfectly suited for the job are killed in shelters. Imagine Gloria Steinem, with a book titled Women’s Liberation Now coming out, focusing a New York Times piece on a cause she deemed “equally” important. Jainism, which was founded in the sixth century BC, has long emphasized the supreme value of ahimsa, or nonviolence to all living creatures. Many monks take this so seriously that they cover their mouths with fabric to avoid accidentally breathing in insects, and sweep the ground ahead as they walk to avoid stepping on them. Some activist movements have been more successful than others. So in trying to figure out how advocates can boost their chances of successfully expanding the circle, it makes sense to investigate what contributed to the success or failure of past movements.
Theories of Moral Considerability: Who and What Matters Morally?
In some cases, that’s because the inventions take care of some of our more basic needs. Emanuela Cardia at the University of Montreal studied more than 3,000 censuses from the 1940s and found that household inventions — the washing machine, the refrigerator, the electric stove — were a major engine of liberation for women. Once the washing machine was invented and made widely accessible, for instance, women were freed up to do other things, like join the workforce.
- Ratiocentrism has the plausible implication that if rational space aliens exist, they also deserve moral consideration.
- Some people think sentience is the wrong litmus test; they argue we should include anything that’s alive or that supports living things.
- ” The piece basically decries that 50 years after the release of Animal Liberation, animals are still treated badly before they are killed.
- But just a couple of centuries ago, that idea would’ve been dismissed as absurd.
- If AI is sentient, then it’s definitely included, in my view.
- Let me make it clear that I am not accusing him of rape, and, to my understanding, nor is she.
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That stunned numerous women, with Haggis then insisting on going to court against one who accused him of rape. He was then stunned to have three other women testify on her behalf, against his wife’s contention that he is “a gentleman.” The jury ruled against him. Singer’s counsel filed a demurrer, which is a motion to dismiss that says that even if the facts alleged in the complaint are true, no law has been broken.
Maybe you think it would be wrong to discriminate on the basis of substrate, so we need the legal system to recognize robot rights, a theme Northern Illinois University media studies professor David Gunkel explores in his new book of that name. How humanity’s idea of who deserves moral concern has grown — and will keep growing. Only organisms that value one experience more than another deserve moral consideration. The first route isn’t particularly promising as evidenced by the fact that if we found out that some small percentage of the “human” population were actually rational space aliens disguised as humans, we wouldn’t infer from this that they didn’t matter morally. Defending anthropocentrism against the charge of speciesism requires arguing either that species membership is morally relevant or that there is some other morally relevant feature that all and only humans have. You argue there are certain situations where we could replace the animals we experiment on with humans…During the Covid pandemic, I supported 1Day Sooner, an organisation of well informed volunteers offering to test the efficacy of candidate vaccines.
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Because we are all products of our time, that intellectual humility is the healthiest posture we can adopt. Not having simple answers may make us uncomfortable, but I tend to think it’s a productive discomfort. Psychologists have shown that we tend to feel more capable of extending moral concern to others if we’re not competing with them for scarce resources and if our own needs are already taken care of.
Plus, just as importantly, welfare campaigns show the shocking suffering caused by our food system; they wake people up. But seeing the bulk of animal advocacy funding flowing in that direction is distressing, and ironically we have the author of Animal Liberation Now to thank for much of that flow. This isn’t to say we should adopt a technologically deterministic view. Tech innovation isn’t necessarily the primary factor allowing the moral circle to expand (and in fact, it can often cause a lot of harm). But it’s one of several factors that can make a larger moral circle more likely.
I am embarrassed to admit that under such pressure, for animals’ sake, I acquiesced. Krista Hiddema‘s chapter on Esther the Wonder Pig is one of my favorites. It describes a brilliant campaign to get Esther’s millions of followers directly, financially, involved in her life when she was faced with a medical emergency. Peter Singer, in his lack of wisdom, weighed in larabet casino with a column criticizing the effort because all that money could do far more good than helping just one animal. “There is a growing understanding that other species are not here for our use.
They have worth and wonder of their own, which is becoming more frequently acknowledged in human society. Let’s remember that almost two-thirds of Californians voted in favor of Prop 2 and Prop 12, which banned the most egregiously cruel housing for farm animals, despite agribusiness’ massive advertising effort to warn them that meat and egg prices would rise. A prime focus on climate also opens the door to suggestions that we should invest in ways to make meat production more efficient “by reducing cow’s methane emissions,” as was recommended in a recent Washington Post piece, or to calls for methane as a potential energy source. Here at Vox, we’re unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.
- His conduct hurt me personally as I struggled to disentangle myself from our destructive relationship but was lured back, with my first ever Los Angeles Times piece being the bait he dangled.
- Both Reese and Singer told me they don’t see plants as sentient, although they said they’d change their views if convincing new evidence were to emerge.
- Peter Singer, however, has said that animal experimentation is justified if the good done to others outweighs the harm inflicted on the animals, even making that point with regard to terminal primate research.
- I have done that now and should let other women know that it has significantly eased the rage that was eating away at me.
- Although it may be tempting to think that the larger your moral circle is, the more it maps onto contemporary progressive ideals, that’s not necessarily right.
- It flies in the face of the entertainment industry rule, “Never kill the dog,” because people will change the channel if you do.
As they were brought into the circle, those people won rights. My guess is that if all and only humans have the feature (e.g., human DNA), then it probably isn’t morally relevant. Alternatively, if it is morally relevant (e.g., intelligence), then it probably isn’t something that all and only humans have. It just means that even if humans are special, it doesn’t follow that they are the only things that deserve moral consideration.
” The piece basically decries that 50 years after the release of Animal Liberation, animals are still treated badly before they are killed. But the idea that plants are sentient is hotly contested — a status reflected by their outlying position in the moral expansiveness scale. Both Reese and Singer told me they don’t see plants as sentient, although they said they’d change their views if convincing new evidence were to emerge. Singer went on to argue that reason, by its nature, doesn’t tolerate inconsistency and arbitrariness — so if we follow the path of rational thinking, it’ll lead us to push past inherited biases, whether they’re against other people or other species.
I know all too well that he relies on the professional talents of the women in his life. Effective Altruism starves out the activists creating the sparks, and Peter Singer wonders why our movement isn’t lighting up the world. I argued that point at the very end of my book Thanking the Monkey, in a section entitled “Talk the Walk,” which shared Marianne Williamson’s inspiring take on a Dateline segment.